Simbine gets fresh Kishane Thompson challenge ahead of Shanghai Diamond League
Akani Simbine has been handed a fresh challenge ahead of this weekend’s Diamond League in Shanghai, China after speeding past all three Africans, including the reigning Olympic 200m champion, Letsile Tebogo and African record holder, Ferdinand Omanyala at the opening leg of the competition in Xiamen on Saturday.
The South African, who won his first global medal, a bronze at the World indoor championships in Nanjing, China last month, clocked 9.99 seconds to also beat 2019 World champion, Christian Coleman in the race.
Simbine is the fastest man over the 100m so far this year and will face almost all the athletes he competed against in Xiamen with the 2024 fastest man by time, Kishane Thompson (9.77) the only addition.
Thompson is making his return to the Diamond League stage since 2023 and will attempt to prove his 9.77 run in 2024 was not by happenstance.
The Jamaican was the overwhelming favourite to win at the Olympics but failed to race past Noah Lyles who added the Olympic crown to the World title he won a year earlier.
Simbine is 0-2 in head-to-head races against the man he is eight years older than and will want to prove he can run faster than the 9.90 world lead he ran in Botswana at the World Athletics Continental Tour Gold event last month.
The 31-year-old 2018 Commonwealth Games champion will not only be keen to win for the second straight year in Shanghai, but he will also be aiming to win the 100m event in the Diamond League for the second time in a row for only the second time in his career.
He first won two back-to-back 100m races in the Diamond League in 2023 when he sped past all comers to win in Stockholm on 2 July and Silesia on 16 July.
