Wayde back, but Lyles running scared of Simbine?

AFTER a lengthy indoor season, a few Diamond League wins and World Relays gold medal, you would think Akani Simbine would take a breather back home.

- ASHFAK MOHAMED

But instead of enjoying the celebrations with the Team South Africa relay squad at the OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg this week, Simbine travelled in another direction.

The 31-year-old SA sprint star left China and headed to the United States to take part in Saturday's adidas Atlanta City Games.

Simbine has been in red-hot form, earning a bronze medal at the 60m indoor world championships in China in March in his first ever campaign in that arena.

Then he ran a 2025 100m worldlead of 9.90 seconds at the Botswana Grand Prix in Gaborone, before winning consecutive Diamond League races in China.

He didn’t slow down on his busy start to the year, anchoring SA to the 4x100m gold medal at the World Relays in Guangzhou, China last weekend with an astonishing finish to edge out USA's Brandon Hicklin, who boasts the second-fastest 100m time this year of 9.93.

Clearly Simbine is the man to beat in Atlanta so does that mean 100m Olympic champion Noah Lyles is running scared of the South African?