Mzansi’s Finest Athlete Akani Simbine Bags 100m Victory in Rome in 10.08 Seconds
- South Africa’s Akani Simbine has managed to bag a win in the men’s 100m race in the Rome Diamond League, which was held in Italy on Thursday
- Mzansi’s Simbine beat Cejhae Greene of Antigua and Liberia’s Emmanuel Matadi, who clinched the number two and three spots
- The 27-year-old is peaking at the right time ahead of the highly anticipated Tokyo Olympic Games starting next month
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South African sprinting heavyweight Akani Simbine has emerged victorious in the Rome Diamond League meeting on Thursday night. Simbine is delighted to have taken the top spot against the likes of United States of America’s Mike Rodgers and Cote d’Ivoire's Arthur Cissé.
The 27-year-old Mzansi champion has spent the last few weeks training in Gemona, Italy, following his last participation in the national championships in Pretoria back in April.
Simbine bagged the win in just 10.08 seconds on a perfect night in Florence and that made it two wins in two years after he previously clocked 9.96.
Source: Instagram
Thursday’s time was well short of his season’s best of 9.99. IOL reports that Antigua’s Cejhae Greene and Briton Chijindu Ujah were the fastest out of the blocks with Simbine taking a while to get going.
Ujah exploded ahead at the 50m mark but the South African stayed in touch and eventually caught up to claim the victory on the finish line in 10.08.
Ujah grabbed second in 10.10 with Liberia’s Emmanuel Matadi third with 10.16. F Simbine it’s all about peaking at the Tokyo Olympics and this is the first step on his journey to Japan.
In the women’s 400m hurdles, South African champion Wenda Nel produced a strong run to finish in a commendable fourth position.
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ESPN also reports that the pride of South Africa, Simbine, edged Britain's Ujah to the line by two-hundredths of a second with a time of 10.08 seconds.
Looking at the women’s race, Britain's Dina Asher-Smith clocked her fastest time outside of major championships as she powered to victory in the 200 metres at the third Diamond League meeting of the season.
Simbine leads the SA team to glory
In sports and athletics stories, Briefly News reported that the South African athletes, led by Simbine, recently bagged a gold medal in the 4x100m quartet to a dramatic victory in the World Athletics Relays in Poland.
Simbine is one of Mzansi’s finest athletes and took over the baton three metres down on Brazil's Paulo Andre Camilo de Oliveira but managed to snatch victory on the line by a hundredth of a second in a time of 38.71.
Staged in Silesia in Poland, the race was so tight that the Brazilians were celebrating before the South Africans were announced as winners.
However, the heartbreak for the South Americans was compounded when they were then disqualified for running out of their lane.
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Source: Briefly News
