Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Simbine will concentrate on times in 2022, says coach
WINNING a medal at a major event has been Akani Simbine’s sole goal over the last few years, but he has just missed out almost every time.
It happened again at the Tokyo Olympics in August, when he finished fourth in a time of 9.93 seconds in the 100m final.
Canada’s Andre de Grasse edged him out for the bronze medal in 9.89, so you can forgive Simbine’s coach, Werner Prinsloo, when he told the Tuks Sport website this week: “There comes a time when you got to ask yourself: what more must we do to win a medal at the Olympic Games? How hard and long must Akani train?”
Well, perhaps not think about the medal. It seems as if that is the approach Simbine and Prinsloo are going to take next year, where the main event on the calendar is the world championships in Eugene, Oregon from July 15-24.
Simbine has won national and African titles, as well as the 2018 Commonwealth Games gold medal – which he will defend in Birmingham next year – while he famously pulled off an unlikely victory for Team SA at the World Relays in the Bahamas in
May this year.
But when it comes to the Olympics and world championships, a string of fourth and fifth places is all he has to show for his efforts.
“At first, Akani and I were angry with ourselves and everyone around us. Now we are at a stage where we got to accept what had happened. There is nothing we can change. We need to learn from what happened, and try and take some positives from the Tokyo Olympics,” Prinsloo told the Tuks Sport website.
“To run 9.90 in the semi-final and only finish fourth is never good. Three athletes dipped under 9.85. It certainly is one of the fastest ever semi-final races at an Olympic Games.
“I could see that Akani was under pressure on the day of the final. The thinking was that if it took 9.90 to qualify for the final, what it would take to win? That uncertainty led to Akani not being at his best.
“Afterwards, Akani lost all motivation. He was ‘switched off’ for the rest of his races. He just went through the motions. That is why another challenge for next year is going to be to make sure he is mentally a bit tougher.”
So, Prinsloo feels that Simbine should rather concentrate on putting together a number of sub-10-second performances, and in that way, hopefully a medal would be at the end of it all come July.
“Next year, I want Akani to be consistent when he races. This year, he has not been. He would run a good race and then be average the next time. If Akani races 12 times, I want him to clock 9.90-something at least nine times. Ideally, four times should be faster than 9.90. If he gets to do so, the results will take care of themselves,” Prinsloo said.
“When Akani set a new personal best, running 9.84 in Hungary about three weeks before he had to race at the Olympics, I thought we were on track to win a medal. But then the Olympic final happened. It was the result we did not expect. We were devastated.
“Afterwards, I could not help but wonder whether it was all worth it. The 9.84 race did not matter anymore. All I could think about was that we had failed. From the start of the season, there was only one goal: it was to medal in Tokyo.
“There comes a time when you have to ask yourself what more must we do to win a medal at the Olympic Games? How hard and long must Akani train?”