2024 Diamond League Final: Can Simbine win his first global 100m title after World University Games’ triumph in 2015?
South Africa’s Akani Simbine has been one of the very known and familiar faces in the global athletics circuit since he made it to his first Olympics 100m final in 2016 as a 22-year-old.
The 30-year-old first raced into global reckoning at the World University Games in Gwangju, Korea Republic where he ran a 9.97 Games record to become the second South African after Anaso Jobodwana to win the blue ribband title.
Simbine continued to make waves at the global level by making it to the final of the World Athletics Championships in 2017 and was second (9.99) in the event at the Diamond League final behind Asafa Powell (9.94) in Zurich.
The South African has made it to two more Olympics and World Athletics Championships 100m finals but has never raced up to where the podium was.
At the Paris Olympics, Simbine only got a reward for his over eight years of consistently making the grade with a silver medal in the 4x100m.
He will be in Brussels, Belgium for the Diamond League final 100m event and all eyes will be on him to see if he could finally get that first individual global title.
Simbine has won in nine qualifying races since he made his first appearance on a Diamond League stage in July 2014 in Lausanne where he ran in the 100m event that served as a promotional event.
He however made his full debut in athletics’ premier one day series the following year at the Golden Gala in Rome, Italy.
Next weekend in Brussels, a much rested Simbine who has competed only once since he helped his country to that 4x100m silver medal win will be on the prowl, as it were, looking to count his efforts of almost 17 years with a global title at a truly global stage.
He will have two of his African brothers, Letsile Tebogo who has been given a wild card to run in the blue ribband event and Cameroun’s Emmanuel Eseme as some of the hurdles he will need to scale to get the desired win.
Americans Christian Coleman and Fred Kerley will also be in action barring any last-minute withdrawals.
