Akani Simbine has reflected on his near miss at the Paris Olympic 100m final, cherishing the race despite narrowly missing a medal.
Akani Simbine has reflected on the men’s 100m final at the Paris Olympic Games, revealing that he was disappointed after missing a medal but it remains one of his favourite races.
The South African sprinting ace finished fourth, yet again, clocking a national record time of 9.82 seconds behind Fred Kerley who timed 9.81 seconds.
Triple world champion Noah Lyles won the race in a time of 9.79 seconds, milliseconds ahead of Jamaican sprint king Kishane Thompson.
Akani Simbine has explained the reason behind his decision to avoid placing himself in the same class as Usain Bolt and other legendary sprinters.
Akani Simbine admitted that the race was so close and for a few minutes, no one knew who had won the race before the names came up on the screen and he saw he had finished fourth.
“When we crossed the line we just waited for who had come on the podium and the botcher said photo for all of us. this time around, the fourth was not the same as it was in Tokyo and it was more of I ran a national record,” Akani Simbine said in an interview with Team South Africa.
“I gave my best run and I was happy…I was content and yes I wanted a medal but it didn’t take away the contentment I had at the time. that was the race and it was just good vibes.”
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Going into the race, Akani Simbine had it in mind that he had done the best training and was not going to let the crowd or his rivals intimidate him into thinking that he was not ready.
The 31-year-old further explained that it was great to be in a position of not predicting who the winner was since times had changed and it was business unusual.
During the Usain Bolt era, it was always known that the world record holder would be the one to take the win but now things have completely changed in the 100m realm.
“At the time I was just like it’s show time and I have to just go with it and see what’s happening there. I had prepared for those moments and I knew what to expect going onto the track,” he shared.
“That is my best race I have ever been into because of the fact that we were so close. For me it just showed how close we are as a group of sprinters and whoever is best on the day and that’s really exciting.
“You know the Usain era, it was just Usain and he was the only one who was going to win and now you don’t know, it’s like whoever has the best day would take it.”
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Akani Simbine is not giving up his spikes anytime soon as he looks to accomplish a lot of things on and off the track. He has yet to win an individual medal at a World Championships and the global edition of the event in Tokyo, Japan is a great time for him to win a medal.
He claimed his first medal on the global stage at the Paris Olympic Games where he anchored South Africa’s men’s 4x100m relay team to a silver medal.
