Akani Simbine and his romance with Global Championships

Akani Simbine and his romance with Global Championships

Track and field is a sport that is very well defined by an athlete’s ability to perform at global championships. The Olympics and World championships are the yardstick for this, and for the events that are determined by milliseconds such as the sprints, the margins for errors can define an athlete’s legacy.

Sometimes, it might be just not being good enough, or even coming unstuck, but if there is one thing you can’t fault South Africa’s sprinter Akani Simbine is that he’s always ready on the line. For nearly a decade, Simbine has been one of the fastest men on the planet. He has made every major final, lined up against the best, and come agonisingly close to a medal. But each time, he fell just short. Fourth place. Fifth place. Again and again. It was a pattern that followed him through the biggest races of his career.

That all changed in Nanjing. In the final of the 60 meters at the World Indoor Championships, Simbine ran 6.54 seconds. This time, it was enough. He crossed the line, looked up at the scoreboard, and saw what he had waited years to see. Bronze. His first global medal.

Simbine has been here before—on the biggest stages, in the biggest moments—only to leave empty-handed. The 2016 Olympics? Fifth. The 2017 World Championships? Fifth again. In 2019, he finished fourth. The heartbreak repeated at the 2021 and 2024 Olympics. He was always close, never quite there. In 2022, another fifth-place finish at the World Championships only added to the frustration. It was a cycle few athletes could endure.

Last year at the Paris Olympics was a bit of an anomaly. Despite him placing fourth in the final and missing out on a podium by the finest of margins in 0.01s, it just felt like the wheels always fall off for the Simbine. In Paris though, there seemed to be light at the end of the tunnel for him as he snagged the 4x100m Silver to take home his first global medal.

But it was never always going to be the same as an individual medal. There were whispers about him being the nearly man. Perhaps it might have gotten to a point where he felt it wouldn’t happen again. Simbine did keep at it. That has been his mantra.

“Never stop believing in yourself. Never…