SA's Akani Simbine breaks African 100m record in Hungary
Jul 07, 2021
Szekesfehervar [Hungary], July 7 : South Africa's sprinter Akani Simbine set a new African record of 9.84 seconds in the men's 100m to win at the Gyulai Istvan Memorial World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meet here in Szekesfehervar on Tuesday.
Simbine comfortably breezed home with the aid of a decent tailwind (+1.2 m/s), finishing well ahead of second-placed Michael Rodgers of the United States (10.00), as per Olympics.com.
The 27-year-old took five hundredths off his previous personal best on the same track from 2016 and broke Olusoji Fasuba's previous continental mark of 9.85 set in Qatar in 2006.
The men's 400m final was set to be a possible preview of the Tokyo 2020 final, but defending Olympic champion and world record holder Wayde van Niekerk did not take to the start line. World champion Steven Gardiner of the Bahamas won the race in 44.47 seconds, with the United States' Bryce Deadmon and Michael Norman second and third.
Earlier, Canada's Andre de Grasse pipped American Kenneth Bednarek at the line in the men's 200m A-race, with de Grasse clocking 19.97, two-hundredths ahead of Bednarek.
Turkey's Cuban-born Yasmani Copello, the men's 400m hurdles bronze medallist at Rio 2016, was more than seven-tenths clear of the rest of the field to win that event in 48.35, while Jamaica's Shericka Jackson won the women's 200m (21.96), shortly after her counterpart Elaine Thompson-Herah had taken the women's 100m in 10.71 from Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (10.82).
