Akani Simbine

Career 2013 World Championships He competed in the 100 metres event at the 2013 World Championships in Athletics.

2015 Universiade Whilst an Information Science student at the University of Pretoria,

2016 South African record and Olympic Games Simbine again broke the South African 100m record with a time of 9.89 seconds at the Gyulai István Memorial in Székesfehérvár on 18 July 2016. He finished fifth in 9.94 seconds in the 100 m final of the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro on 14 August 2016.

2017 In the first meet of the 2017 IAAF Diamond League in Doha, Simbine won the 100 m event with a time of 9.99 seconds.

2018

Simbine won the 2018 Commonwealth Games 100 m final in 10.03 seconds, relegating pre-race favourite Yohan Blake into third.

2020

Simbine started his 2020 season with a 150 metre race at the University of Johannesburg Stadium on 14 February, equalling the South African record time (15.08) while jogging to the finish line, but with no wind information. He ran his first 100 m for the season on 14 March at the University of Pretoria Tuks Stadium. Unsure whether or not he would be able to compete later in the season because of the rapidly spreading COVID-19 pandemic, he pushed to the finish line in a world-leading time of 9.91 seconds in the heats.

Simbine stopped track training in March and didn't get permission to resume training again until July, weeks after other sports had resumed training after he pleaded with Athletics South Africa to allow athletes back onto the track. He would not be able to compete until leaving South Africa in mid-August for Europe, winning a series of 100 m competitions in Marseille, Rovereto, and Bellinzona in times of 10.19, 10.17, and 10.02 seconds respectively. He finished his season in September with a 100 m victory at the Rome Diamond League, trailing Arthur Cissé of the Ivory Coast for the first 85 m before passing to win in 9.96 seconds. He broke 10 seconds at the Gauteng North Championships at the University of Pretoria on 27 March, winning 9.99 seconds ahead of Gift Leotlela (10.20) into a –3.0 wind. According to SuperSport, Simbine claimed that the "windy conditions were some of the worst I ever raced in."

On 15 April at the South African Championships in Pretoria, Simbine competed in the men's 100 metres, finishing his first round heat in 10.11 seconds. He then won his semi-final in 9.82 seconds, the fastest he had ever run, but the wind was again over the limit for record purposes at +2.8 m/s. The next day, he clocked his 29th sub-10-second time with 9.99 seconds to win the final, finishing 0.17 seconds ahead of second placing Gift Leotlela's 10.16 seconds.

Two weeks later, on 2 May, Simbine anchored South Africa to gold in the men's 4 × 100 metres relay at the 2021 World Relays. He received the baton three metres behind Brazil's Paulo André de Oliveira but managed to close the gap and finish one-hundredth of a second ahead of Brazil with a time of 38.71 seconds.

2024 On 4 August, Simbine missed a podium finish in his third consecutive Olympic 100-metre final at the 2024 Summer Olympics, setting a national record of 9.82 seconds in fourth place.

On 9 August, Simbine finally won an Olympic medal as part of the South African 4 × 100 metres relay team by claiming silver.

2025 In March 2025, Simbine won bronze at the World Indoor Championships at the 60m race with a time of 6.53s. This was his first global individual medal. He finished behind Lachlan Kennedy and Jeremiah Azu, with the latter taking gold.

On 19 April 2025, Simbine became the only athlete in history to run a sub-10 seconds over 100m for 11 consecutive years when he won gold over 100m at the Botswana Grand Prix in Gaborone. He won the race by running 9.90s over 100m, a world-lead for 2025. The record was previously held by Usain Bolt with 10 years.

In April 2025, Simbine ran 9.99s over 100m to win gold at the first Diamond League of the season in Xiamen, China.

In April 2025, Simbine was selected, by the Athletics South Africa (ASA), as the men's athletics team captain for Team SA for the World Athletics Relays championship to be held in Guangzhou, China on 10 and 11 May 2025.

In May 2025, Simbine anchored South Africa to win gold at the 100mx4 at the World Relays in Guangzhou. He also won the 100m race in Atlanta on 17 May 2025 with a time of 9.86s.

On 25 May 2025, Simbine took gold in 100m at the Rabat Diamond League by running 9.95s. Making it his 3rd Diamond League win of the session

Statistics Information from World Athletics profile unless otherwise noted.

Personal bests Event Time (s) Wind (m/s) Venue Date Notes100 m 9.82 +1.0 Paris, France 4 August 2024 9.82 +2.8 Pretoria, South Africa 15 April 2021 Altitude-assisted and wind-assisted 150 m 15.08 Johannesburg, South Africa 15 February 2020 Altitude-assisted, no wind information 200 m 19.95 +1.7 Pretoria, South Africa 4 March 2017 Altitude-assisted 4×100 m relay 37.65 Doha, Qatar 4 October 2019 African record 4×200 m relay 1:20.42 Yokohama, Japan 12 May 2019 African record

International championship results

1Disqualified in the semifinals

2Did not finish in the final

3Disqualified in the final

Circuit wins and national titles Diamond League (100 m) Doha: 2017 London: 2019 Rome: 2020 South African Championships 100 m: 2015, 2017, 2021 200 m: 2019

Seasonal bests Year 100 m 200 m 2010 10.61 21.91 2011 10.57 21.27 2012 10.19 20.68 2013 10.36 20.79 2014 10.02 20.37 2015 9.97 20.23 2016 9.89 20.16 2017 9.92 19.95 2018 9.93 — 2019 9.92 20.27 2020 9.91 — 2021 9.84 20.29 2024 9.82 —

Track records

As of 9 September 2024, Simbine holds the following track records for 100 metres.

LocationTimeWindspeedm/sDateNotes Gold Coast, Queensland 10.03 + 0.8 09/04/2018 Gwangju 9.97 0.0 09/07/2015 Karlstad 10.09 + 2.7 22/07/2015 Kladno 10.07 + 0.3 13/06/2023 Paarl 10.08 – 0.4 22/03/2018 Pietermaritzburg 10.01 – 0.5 19/04/2024 Potchefstroom 9.92 + 0.6 30/03/2023 Pretoria 9.82 + 2.8 15/04/2021 Roodepoort 10.00 + 2.1 23/03/2021 Saint Pierre 9.93 + 4.5 09/06/2022 Track record shared with Kenyan sprinterFerdinand Omanyala from the same race. Stellenbosch 10.06 – 0.1 15/04/2016 Suzhou 10.01 – 0.1 27/04/2024 Székesfehérvár 9.84 + 1.2 06/07/2021