When South African sprinter Akani Simbine won at the Oslo Diamond League meeting on 30 May, it was his sixth 100m victory in six races. His winning time of 9.94 seconds was his first official sub-10 performance of the season.
Outshining Olympic champion Marcell Jacobs, who came 4th with a time of 10.03, the South African is now in 6th position on World Athletics’ 2024 rankings.Two weeks earlier, Simbine ran a sub-10 in Atlanta, but his 9.90 seconds was not ratified because it was on a street track. That time (unofficially) put him in joint 3rd position on the world rankings, behind Jamaican Oblique Seville (9.82) and American Noah Lyles (9.85).
In 2014, Simbine became the first South African to break the 10-second barrier. His 2021 time of 9.84 is the 20th fastest in the world. The SA 100m record holder is well on track for the Paris Olympics in July.