Planning for World Athletics Champs will be key for Akani

SOUTH African sprint sensation Akani Simbine has set himself up as the early man to beat at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo later this year, after powering TeamSA to gold at the Athletics World Relays in Guangzhou, China, in the 4X100m relay at the weekend.

- ROWAN CALLAGHAN

The 31-year-old sprinter is enjoying a purple patch at a time when most sprinters are ready to hang up their spikes. The jet-heeled runner has rapidly shed his tag as the 'nearly man' of global athletics.

In an exclusive interview with Independent media on Monday, Simbine's coach, Werner Prinsloo, was asked what the sprinter is doing differently this season. “I think it’s a combination of things; an accumulation of things over the past few years. Mentally he is in a good space, he has this calm in his life and he understands why he's running,” Prinsloo said.

“In terms of the training, in 2024 we had a very good year, running three 9.8s. It has been just basically a continuation from then on.

“We did identify a couple of things that we needed to work on. That's why we did the indoor season - the 60s - to try and work on those specific things. And it’s paid dividends thus far.”