South Africa s Simbine reaping rewards of strong indoor season work

BENGALURU – Akani Simbine has emerged as the man to beat over 100 metres in 2025, but the South African is not putting extra pressure on himself early in a campaign in which he will target world championship glory in Tokyo.

After a strong indoor season, he set a world-leading time of 9.90sec en route to gold at April’s Botswana Golden Grand Prix in Gaborone, before dipping under 10 seconds again to triumph at both Diamond League meetings in China.

The 31-year-old, who also won his first individual global sprint medal with bronze in the 60m event at the world indoor championships in Nanjing, said his solid preparation for the shorter distance had made all the difference over 100m.

“I just think it comes from having a really great indoor (season). Setting up myself for the indoors has put me in the position to run what I’m running now,” Simbine told reporters ahead of this weekend’s World Athletics Relays in Guangzhou.

“Usually, around this time I would clock a high 9.9, that’s been the norm... I’m running sub-10s because of the work we’ve done for 60m, but also because naturally, my last 40m is really good on its own.

“Being the man to beat isn’t something I think about.

“At the end of the day, I’m running and winning my races, that’s all that needs to be done. The rest of it, the noise around it is created by you guys (the media) and the fans.”

Simbine opted to stay in China instead of flying home for a training camp with his teammates and will compete in the 4x100m relays this weekend as South Africa look to secure their place in September’s world championships in Tokyo.

Simbine said he was hoping to compete at the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028