Winning gold is something I knew I could do, says Simbine
AFFIRMING South Africa’s status as a global sprinting powerhouse, Akani Simbine and Henricho Bruintjies sprinted to a rare gold-silver double at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.
Simbine made history as SA’s first ever 100m champion at the Games, crossing the line in 10.03 seconds. Simbine produced his customary top-end speed after a sluggish start to cross the line in first place.
Bruintjies produced the best performance of his career, finishing ahead of former world champion Yohan Blake in 10.17secs. Blake rounded off the podium in third place with a time of 10.19s.
Simbine now finally has a major championship medal to show for his hard work over the past few years.
He featured in the 2016 Olympic and the 2017 world championship finals, with only two fifth-placed finishes to show for it.
“It is just really, really great, I am happy with my team, my coach – who was working so hard and telling me I can do it – and my family back home,” Simbine said.
“It is an amazing feeling to come here, and I’ve won the gold medal which is something I knew I could do.”
It was quite apt that Bruintjies and Simbine shared the podium as they have been at the forefront of SA sprinting the past four years. They played tit-for-tat in breaking the national record back in 2015, before Simbine started dominating the short-sprint event.
While Simbine has been soaring over the past two seasons, Bruintjies has been battling to find his way back to the top.
Yesterday’s silver medal was a well-deserved reward for his perseverance, despite setbacks and hardships.
“I am quite happy with the performance, I’ve been working hard but I haven’t been in finals like Akani,” Bruintjies said.
“This was my first final and to get onto the podium is just amazing for me. From here on I can just work for more podiums in the future.”
Before the start of the Games, Simbine said he would no longer merely hope for the best going into a major championship but go out with the mindset of winning gold.
“I believed in myself from the start of the race and I believed in what I could do and focussing on myself,” Simbine said.
“I think everybody is celebrating and everybody believes sprinting in South Africa has been a long time coming and now we can have two on the podium.”
The para-athletes Dyan Buis and Charl du Toit opened the sprinting medal tally when they raced to T38 silver and T37 100m bronze respectively.
Earlier, bowls quartet Elma Davis‚ Esme Kruger‚ Nicolene Neal and Johanna Snyman won SA’s second medal on the greens at the Games. They went down 18-16 to defending world champions New Zealand in their gold-silver match early yesterday.
It is the bowlers’ second medal of the Games after Colleen Piketh won the singles bronze medal on Sunday.
“We are immensely proud of our achievement, it is the first Commonwealth Games for all four of us, and we are extremely happy with the silver medal,” Kruger said.
Their silver medal pushed SA’s tally at the Games into double figures, winning the country’s 10th medal. FOR ALL the accusations and allegations of doing their best to try kill the game of rugby, the South African Rugby Union deserves some credit when they do get things right.
And yes it is not often they get things right and when they do it is almost inevitable they will do everything in their power to destroy the success. But not in the case of Sevens rugby. Whoever it is at those plush offices in Plattekloof who decided the shorter format of the game must be a priority – and be so for as long as possible – must be given a raise.
For it is the Sevens project that not only gives hope rugby can still thrive in our country but do so in an inclusive way.
While the world champions were sitting in Australia’s Gold Coast preparing themselves for their gold medal title defence at the Commonwealth Games, there were 13 young men mostly below the age of 22 pretending to be the world champions and trying to do what no South African Sevens team has done in being the last team standing at the Hong Kong Sevens.
Yes it was always going to be a big gamble not taking their star-studded side to Hong Kong, and what would make it worse is whether the main side will be able to medal at the Commonwealth Games.
But the gamble paid off for the young and inexperienced Blitzbok side that was in Hong Kong as they not only punched above their weight but proved that Sevens is a game Saru should be investing more resources in.
The shorter format of the game of rugby certainly has a bright future in the country, judging by how the likes of Muller du Plessis, Mfundo Ndlovu, Zain Davids, Selvyn Davids, Marco Labuschagne, Mosolwa Mafuma and James Murphy were the talk of the town throughout the weekend in Hong Kong.
So good was this second-string Blitzbok side that they just missed out on a place in the final when they went down by two points to a full strength Fijian side and eventually finished third after a resounding win over New Zealand in the bronze medal match.
And as good as it is to see a group of young men excel on the big stage, it is even better to see them do so with a team that is easily identifiable as being a truly South African side.
With the noose of transformation constantly hovering around the heads of the archaic and conservative thinking within the minds of many coaches and administrators, it is refreshing and comforting to see how transformation and success can co-exist.
What happened over the weekend in Hong Kong was no fluke and is a consequence of planning, implementation and putting the game of rugby first.
If only our unions, franchises and ultimately the whole of Saru could learn from the success of our Sevens system and roll out at every level of the game in the country then there is no reason why we can’t rule world rugby again.