Tuks teammates Akani Simbine and Henricho Bruintjies share a house in Pretoria – and now they share the South African 100m record.
Simbine bagged SA’s first medal of the World Student Games in Gwangju, South Korea, yesterday as he clocked 9.97sec to equal Bruintjies’s four-day-old mark.
That time also goes down as a record for the university showpiece.
Jamaica’s Ashani Brown was second in 10.12 and Ramil Guliyev of Turkey finished third in 10.16.
Simbine’s win also meant that the 100m title stayed in South African hands, having previously been taken by Anaso Jobodwana at the 2013 edition in Kazan, Russia.
Jobodwana, who has since turned professional, won the 100m and 200m double two years ago.
Ncincilili Titi – who like Jobodwana is based in the US although they hail from the Eastern Cape – makes his bid for 200m glory today.
He was the fastest of the second round on Thursday, going 20.84.
Simbine, who grew up in Kempton Park, said he had focused on the victory, not the time.
“I’m very happy with the run. I just kept focus and told myself just get through all my phases and when I get to the 60m I know I’m going to power through.
“I just told myself to stay relaxed and get through the race,” said University of Pretoria student Simbine, who broke 10 seconds for the first time earlier this month when he went 9.99sec in Slovenia.
“I didn’t focus on the time much, I just told myself ‘let me just go and win the medal’. That was my goal.”
The triumph will be a confidence-booster ahead of the world championships in Beijing next month, although it should be remembered that World Student Games champions have seldom excelled on the bigger stage.
Of the 21 short sprint champions since the first Universiade in 1957, only one has gone on to win an Olympic medal – Cuban Enrique Figuerola in 1964 in Tokyo.
Bruintjies, who went 9.97 in Switzerland on Sunday to beat Simon Magakwe’s 9.98 milestone from last year, was supposed to have competed in Korea, but he was home in Pretoria nursing a glute injury. He and Simbine, who work with different coaches but spend much of their free time together, have spoken frequently about the potential of an SA 4x100m relay team. They, Titi and Magakwe finished fourth at the Commonwealth Games last year.
“Me and Akani have been talking about it a lot. We’re good friends, we chill together – we believe we can get to the podium ,” said Bruintjies, who grew up in Paarl.
He admitted that their 9.97 was not fast enough for an individual medal on the world’s biggest stages; it would have been good enough only for sixth spot at the 2012 London Olympics where the bronze medal was won in 9.79. But his coach, Hennie Kriel, stressed that a relay team would need time to prepare, plus at least one extra runner – if not two – to compete in the heats to keep the fastest members as fresh as possible.
“You actually need a group of six, otherwise it’s tough on an athlete doing the 100m and 200m and then the relay.”
Simbine, Bruintjies and Jobodwana all do the double, although Simbine pulled out of the longer sprint because it clashed with the 100m. “And you need some training time for the change-overs,” added Kriel. “You can’t just send four fast guys ; they aren’t going to make it.”
SA sprinter’s run equals record time
Simbine bagged SA’s first medal of the World Student Games in Gwangju, South Korea, yesterday as he clocked 9.97sec to equal Bruintjies’s four-day-old mark.
That time also goes down as a record for the university showpiece.
Jamaica’s Ashani Brown was second in 10.12 and Ramil Guliyev of Turkey finished third in 10.16.
Simbine’s win also meant that the 100m title stayed in South African hands, having previously been taken by Anaso Jobodwana at the 2013 edition in Kazan, Russia.
Jobodwana, who has since turned professional, won the 100m and 200m double two years ago.
Ncincilili Titi – who like Jobodwana is based in the US although they hail from the Eastern Cape – makes his bid for 200m glory today.
He was the fastest of the second round on Thursday, going 20.84.
Simbine, who grew up in Kempton Park, said he had focused on the victory, not the time.
“I’m very happy with the run. I just kept focus and told myself just get through all my phases and when I get to the 60m I know I’m going to power through.
“I just told myself to stay relaxed and get through the race,” said University of Pretoria student Simbine, who broke 10 seconds for the first time earlier this month when he went 9.99sec in Slovenia.
“I didn’t focus on the time much, I just told myself ‘let me just go and win the medal’. That was my goal.”
The triumph will be a confidence-booster ahead of the world championships in Beijing next month, although it should be remembered that World Student Games champions have seldom excelled on the bigger stage.
Of the 21 short sprint champions since the first Universiade in 1957, only one has gone on to win an Olympic medal – Cuban Enrique Figuerola in 1964 in Tokyo.
Bruintjies, who went 9.97 in Switzerland on Sunday to beat Simon Magakwe’s 9.98 milestone from last year, was supposed to have competed in Korea, but he was home in Pretoria nursing a glute injury. He and Simbine, who work with different coaches but spend much of their free time together, have spoken frequently about the potential of an SA 4x100m relay team. They, Titi and Magakwe finished fourth at the Commonwealth Games last year.
“Me and Akani have been talking about it a lot. We’re good friends, we chill together – we believe we can get to the podium ,” said Bruintjies, who grew up in Paarl.
He admitted that their 9.97 was not fast enough for an individual medal on the world’s biggest stages; it would have been good enough only for sixth spot at the 2012 London Olympics where the bronze medal was won in 9.79. But his coach, Hennie Kriel, stressed that a relay team would need time to prepare, plus at least one extra runner – if not two – to compete in the heats to keep the fastest members as fresh as possible.
“You actually need a group of six, otherwise it’s tough on an athlete doing the 100m and 200m and then the relay.”
Simbine, Bruintjies and Jobodwana all do the double, although Simbine pulled out of the longer sprint because it clashed with the 100m. “And you need some training time for the change-overs,” added Kriel. “You can’t just send four fast guys ; they aren’t going to make it.”
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