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The four-time world champion revealed why he thinks Akani Simbine, the South African sprinting ace struggles at major championships and what he can do to change the narrative and win medals at the World Championships and Olympic Games.
American sprint legend Justin Gatlin has explained why Akani Simbine tends to struggle at major championships despite posting faster times in the build-up to the same.
The South African sprinter is undoubtedly one of the best sprinters in the world but he fails to show up in his fullest form at either the World Championships or Olympic Games and has yet to win an individual medal at such an event.
Akani Simbine found a breakthrough at the Paris Olympic Games where he anchored South Africa to a silver medal in the men’s 4x100m relay and the whole world was happy about his achievement. However, in the 100m, Akani Simbine has yet to stamp authority in a global championship and the best he has ever finished in such races is fourth-place.
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18:19 - 16.10.2024
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Former Olympic champion Justin Gatlin explained that Africa has a different structure of their seasons than Europe and that’s what makes the South African struggle to make an impact when it really matters.
He noted that Akani Simbine should consider changing his routine to match that of other continents and he will be guaranteed a medal at a global event. Gatlin did not rule out the tons of talent that the South African has.
“That gives me two questions now, all right so, with Simbine, we know that he is a South African athlete and his season is different from ours. If he doesn’t already, do you think it’s in his best favour to maybe back his season up to where it’s aligning to our traditional season which really the world is on?” Gatlin said in his Ready Set Go podcast.
“It seems like we get the best of Simbine maybe a month leading up to whatever championship and then we want to see the same Simbine peak and show that same effort at the championship but it seems like I’ve seen that through the season where he has that shot and he drops a really hot time, a good time but it’s like almost a couple of weeks before he needed it like at a championship,” he added.
On his part, Justin Gatlin’s podcast co-host Rodney Green agreed that Akani Simbine has to find a way to work on maintaining his form until the global events.
Green explained that Akani Simbine does not have to prove himself at the South African Championships since he has already done that for years and now, his focus should be on medaling at a World Championship or Olympic Games.
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08:09 - 18.10.2024
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“I think he is going to do a little bit more change to try and sustain those faster times later in the year. I think it won’t be as important for him to win the national trials, it’s just going to be in his interest to make the national team. If he gets second and makes the team, that will be okay,” he added.
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