Lagos,Nigeria
Wednesday, April 24th, 2024

Search
Search
Close this search box.

South Africa: Simbine Breaks Record In South Africa

No comment
Monday, March 6th, 2017
No comment

Akani Simbine made history on the track in Tshwane, Clarence Munyai smashed a long-standing national junior record and distance runner Melikhaya Frans broke new ground on the road in Uitenhage, on Saturday of records for South African athletics.

Akani-Simbine

Simbine was impressive, as he started off his season with a bang.

The 23-year-old Rio Olympic finalist clocked 9.93 to secure victory in the 100m dash and went on to win the 200m in a personal best of 19.95, but his half-lap time was 0.08 outside Anaso Jobodwana’s SA mark, clipping 0.21 off his own career best.

Simbine’s performance in the shorter sprint (100m) was 0.04 outside his own national senior record, but setting the fastest time ever run in South Africa.

He joined 400m world record holder Wayde van Niekerk as the only two South Africans to have run under 10 seconds over 100m and sub-20 seconds over 200m.

Munyai again displayed his immense potential, taking second place in the Men’s 200m event in 20.10 at the Athletics Gauteng North League Meeting.

The exciting 19-year-old Rio Olympian bettered the SA Under-20 mark of 20.16 which had been set by Riaan Dempers in Germiston in April 1995.

He also narrowly missed out on breaking the national junior 100m record of 10.19, grabbing second spot in the shorter event in 10.20.

Elsewhere on Saturday, Frans broke the SA 30km record at the NMBM Human Race in Uitenhage, Eastern Cape.

The unheralded 27-year-old athlete shattered his Personal Best by more than five minutes, defending his title at the annual race in 1:30:54.

He edged out marathon specialist Lusapho April, who crossed the line nine seconds later in second position.

April, who holds the SA 25km best (1:15:02), also went under the previous national 30km mark of 1:32:43 set by Neo Molema in Cape Town in January 2002.

Ntombesintu Mfunzi retained her title in the women’s race in 1:54:43, less than two minutes outside the 30-year-old SA record of 1:53:01 held by Monica Drogemoller.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *