It’s not often that you see Akani Simbine running in February, but they say 2025 should be viewed as 20 20 THRIVE – and that is what the South African sprinting legend is trying to do by running on the indoor circuit for the first time.
The 31-year-old Olympic silver medallist – from last year’s Paris Games in the 4x100m relay – began his journey to September’s world athletics championships in Tokyo by participating in the ISTAF World Indoor Tour meeting in Berlin on Friday night.
Simbine lined up in the 60m dash, where his outdoor personal best is 6.53 seconds.
At least the indoor meetings allow for a heat and final for the sprinters, which made Simbine’s trip to the German capital more worthwhile.
He emerged victorious in his heat in front of a packed 12 000-capacity crowd at the Mercedes-Benz Arena.
Simbine stopped the clock in 6.63 seconds to edge out Nigeria’s Folawiyo Olaoye, who was awarded the same time, while Germany’s Lucas Ansah-Peprah finished third in 6.65.
Another German, Heiko Gussmann, won the second heat in a quick 6.57, and entered the final as the favourite.
Despite Simbine’s best efforts, Gussmann clinched the final in the same 6.57 time, which the South African was also awarded to claim second spot, while Kevin Kranz of Germany was third in 6.61.
The most notable performance on the night came from pole vault superstar Armand Duplantis, who set a new meeting record of 6.10m, which was also a world lead for 2025.
Back in business 😤@mondohoss600 opens his season with a world lead and new meeting record of 6.10m at the @ISTAF_Berlin 🔥
How high will the pole vault 🐐 go this season? 👀#WorldIndoorTour pic.twitter.com/pv8P2tRQXd
But for Simbine – who finished fourth in the 100m final at the Paris Olympics – the cobwebs of the pre-season training has now been removed, and he will hope to quicken up over the next few weeks ahead of the world indoor championships, which will take place at the Nanjing Sports Training Centre in China from March 21-23.
Two other potential South African medallists for the world indoor championships will be 800m star Prudence Sekgodiso and middle-distance athlete Tshepo Tshite.
Olympic finalist Sekgodiso broke the SA 800m indoor record in Karlsruhe, Germany last week, and equalled her time of 1:59.88 at a meeting in Lievin, France on Thursday night.
Tshite, who’s preferred distance is the 1 500m, showed that he is in tremendous early-season form in the men’s mile at the same Lievin meeting.
He posted a new SA indoor record of 3:54.10 to finish fifth behind Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen, who produced an astonishing run to break the world record with 3:45.14.