Simbine chasing London double
SPRINT STAR: FIRST GOAL IS TO GET INTO BOTH FINALS
He and Van Niekerk to compete in Boston next month.
Buoyed by his early success this season, Akani Simbine hopes to step on the podium in both the 100m and 200m sprints at the World Championships in London.
The Olympic 100m finalist, who set a national record of 9.89 seconds in the short dash in the build-up to last year’s Rio Games, cracked the sub-10 and sub-20 barriers in the 100m and 200m events during the recent domestic campaign.
Building on that form, he took a handful of impressive scalps at the opening leg of the Diamond League series in Doha two weeks ago, in his first international race of the year.
Though he was 0.07 outside his 100m season’s best, Simbine clocked 9.99 to dip under 10 seconds for the sixth time this year.
In the process, he defeated the likes of American rocket Justin Gatlin, Canadian prospect Andre de Grasse and Jamaican powerhouse Asafa Powell.
“I wanted to take the high from the South African season into the European season,” Simbine explained yesterday after he was revealed as a Mercedes-Benz ambassador.
“The 100m is always a mental game, and if I’ve taken these guys down now, I have that confidence against them and I feel I can do it again.”
Carrying that confidence into a long international campaign, Simbine said he was targeting two medals at the global championships in August.
“I’m definitely going to run the double, and the first goal I have set myself is to get into both finals,” he said.
“In the 100m I need to make sure I come back with a medal, and I will also do my best to try get into a medal position in the 200m.”
Returning to Europe later this week, Simbine confirmed he would set up his camp in Gemona with fellow sprint sensation and good friend Wayde van Niekerk.
Both athletes were due to compete again at the Adidas Boost Games in Boston on June 4.