Tuks pair share home and SA 100m record

TUKS teammates Akani Simbine and Henricho Bruintjies share a house in Pretoria — and now they share the South African 100m record.

Simbine bagged South Africa’s first medal of the World Student Games in Gwangju, South Korea, yesterday as he clocked 9.97sec to equal Bruintjies’s four-day-old mark.

That time also goes down as a record for the university showpiece.

Jamaica’s Ashani Brown was second behind Simbine in 10.12 and Ramil Guliyev of Turkey finished third in 10.16.

Simbine’s win also meant that the 100m title stayed in South African hands, having previously been taken by Anaso Jobodwana at the 2013 edition in Kazan, Russia.

Jobodwana won the 100m and 200m double two years ago.

Ncincilili Titi – who like Jobodwana is based in the US although they hail from the East- ern Cape – makes his bid for 200m glory today.

He was the fastest of the second round on Thursday, going 20.84. Simbine, who grew up in Kempton Park, said he had focused on the victory, not the time.

“I’m very happy with the run. I just kept focus and told myself just get through all my phases and when I get to the 60m I know I’m going to power through.

“I just told myself to stay relaxed and get through the race,” University of Pretoria student Simbine said. He broke 10 seconds for the first time earlier this month when he went 9.99sec in Slovenia.

The triumph will be a confidence-booster ahead of the world championships in Beijing next month, although it should be remembered that World Student Games champions have seldom excelled on the biggest stage of all.

Bruintjies, who went 9.97 in Switzerland on Sunday to beat Simon Magakwe’s 9.98 milestone from last year, was supposed to have competed in Korea, but he was home in Pretoria nursing a glute injury.