Akani Simbine won’t be running in the South African championships next week, but he will have a bigger fish to fry in the Diamond League.
The 2024 Paris Olympic silver medallist in the 4x100m relay won’t be in the 100m line-up at the national event at the NWU McArthur Stadium in Potchefstroom, which will take place from April 24-26 – next Thursday to Saturday.
But the 31-year-old – who ran a blisteringly quick 2025 world lead of 9.90 seconds in Botswana last weekend – will strut his stuff on the big stage at the opening Diamond League meeting in Xiamen, south-east China next Saturday, April 26.
Simbine’s coach, Werner Prinsloo, confirmed to Independent Media on Saturday that the South African star will spend another week in China to participate in the second Diamond League meeting in Shanghai on May 3.
Simbine has enjoyed a thrilling start to his 2025 campaign, after opting to run on the indoor circuit for the first time in his stellar career.
He reaped the benefits by claiming his first individual global medal with a 60m bronze at the world indoor championships in Nanjing, China in March.
He followed up that performance with a terrific display in the Botswana Golden Grand Prix in Gaborone last Saturday, where he clocked 9.90 to register the fastest time in the world, eclipsing fellow SA star Bayanda Walaza’s 9.99 effort.
Simbine is gearing up for September’s world championships in Tokyo, and will hope to beat his SA record of 9.82 during the course of the season in order to push for a podium finish.
After beating Kenyan powerhouse Ferdinand Omanyala quite easily in Botswana, Simbine will face a much more stacked field in both 100m races in China.
Omanyala will be present for both events, but so too Botswana’s 200m Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo, who will aim to showcase his versatility after winning the half-lap race on home soil last weekend.
But perhaps Simbine’s main rival in Xiamen next Saturday will be American Christian Coleman, who boasts a personal best of 9.76.
Although that time was set in 2019, the 29-year-old Coleman was joint-eighth-fastest in the world in 2024 with a 9.86 effort – the same as Tebogo – and will look to kick off his 2025 season in style.
He is also the 60m indoor world record-holder with a superb 6.34, which is well clear of Simbine’s 6.53.
Another man for Simbine to watch in the Xiamen field will be British athlete Jeremiah Azu, who clinched the gold medal at the world indoor championships with a 60m time of 6.49 and was also part of the Great Britain 4x100m relay team that secured a bronze medal at the Paris Olympics.
The stakes will be even higher at the Shanghai 100m for Simbine, as apart from Coleman, Tebogo and Omanyala, the fastest man in the world from last year will also be present.
Jamaican Kishane Thompson stopped the clock at 9.77 in Kingston last June, and followed it up with a brilliant performance in the Paris Olympic final, where he was just edged out for the gold medal by American Noah Lyles.
Both men were given times of 9.79, but Lyles was recorded as being a remarkable 0.005 seconds ahead of Thompson in arguably the closest 100m final in history.
So, Thompson will want to prove that 2024 wasn’t a fluke by going for world-championship gold in Tokyo, and his journey will begin in Shanghai against Simbine.
There will be three other South Africans in action in Xiamen next Saturday as well. Javelin Olympic silver medallist Jo-Ané du Plessis (née Van Dyk) will look to build on her Botswana victory last week, where she won with a distance of 61.23m.
While Japan’s Olympic champion Haruka Kitaguchi won’t be taking part, Du Plessis’ main competition is likely to come from Spain’s Yulenmis Aguilar, who finished sixth in the Paris final.
In the women’s 100m hurdles, South African record-holder Marioné Fourie will look to take the next step in her progress to become a genuine medal contender.
Fourie clocked an excellent 12.69 in Gaborone last week, and now faces Nigeria’s world record-holder Tobi Amusan in Xiamen.
Amusan’s world mark of 12.12 is well clear of Fourie’s personal best of 12.49, but the South African will be encouraged by the fact that her time was the joint-15th-fastest in 2024, where she reached the Olympic semi-finals.
The quickest time last year, 12.24, was set by Jamaican Ackera Nugent.
Here is Marione Fourie clocking a world lead time of 12.69 (unofficial) at the #ASAGrandPrix2 🔥
— SuperSport 🏆 (@SuperSportTV) March 19, 2025
📺 Stream the meet live on DStv: https://t.co/rM90YyQxaw pic.twitter.com/E5HmsaDARz
Apart from Amusan – whose 2024 best was 12.40 – Americans Nia Ali (12.30 PB), Grace Stark (12.31) and Tonea Marshall (12.36), as well as Jamaica’s Danielle Williams (12.32) will be Fourie’s main rivals.
The fourth South African running in Xiamen will be former 400m world junior champion Lythe Pillay, who ran 44.97 in Botswana last week.
But Pillay will have a tough task in China, as a top-class field awaits, including former Olympic and world champion Kirani James of Grenada, as well as American star Vernon Norwood and Botswana’s Bayapo Ndori.