By Uzor Odigbo
South Africa’s Akani Simbine is the new speed man in Africa following his sensational 9.84 seconds run to win the blue ribband event at the Istvan Gyulai Memorial meeting in Budapest, Hungary on Tuesday.
Simbine’s time is a hundredth of a second faster than the 9.85 seconds Nigeria’s Olusoji Fasuba ran in 2006 in Doha, Qatar.
The South African certainly has laid down a marker for the event at the delayed 2020 Olympics in Tokyo which starts later this month.
All eyes had been on Fasuba’s compatriot, Divine Oduduru as the man capable of rewriting the record after he scorched to a 9.86 seconds finish to win the NCAA 100m title in 2019 but Simbine has shown he deserves to be crowned the fastest man of all-time in Africa.
The South African came back after his incredible feat in the 100m to race past Oduduru in the 200m to successfully complete a sprint double.
The Nigeria 200m record holder, competing for the first time since May 31 looked to be coasting home after leading for all of 150m until Simbine changed into a new gear and ran past him to stop the clock at 20.25 seconds. The Nigerian was third in 20.38 seconds.
With less than a month to the start of the athletics event of the Olympic Games, Oduduru will have to find the form that saw him run inside 20 seconds (19.88) two months ago to stand a chance of making his first individual Olympic final after stumbling out at the semifinal stage five years ago in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil where he made his debut at the Games