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Akani Simbine has disclosed what his dream sport was as he detailed why he chose athletics over that.
If he would not be running the track, South African sprinter Akani Simbine has revealed what his first love was and it is something he would be doing till date.
Probably, when the South African national football team heads to major tournaments, Akani Simbine would be in the first 11 but the dream to be a top footballer came to a sudden end after he had to choose between soccer and athletics.
In an interview with Super Sport, Simbine revealed that he was always very instrumental while in primary and his team would always rely on him to score goals for them. He was also very fast and that was a huge advantage when it came to playing football.
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11:01 - 19.11.2024
Akani Simbine on how 'bromance' with Usain Bolt helped him overcome doubts & unleash the beast in him
South African sprinter Akani Simbine credits Usain Bolt's mentorship and belief in his potential as a significant influence on his career, inspiring him to overcome self-doubt and achieve success on the global stage.
Akani Simbine further noted that when he advanced in education, his mother advised that he chooses one thing to do since she wanted him to solely focus on books. At the time, Simbine was juggling between playing football for a club outside school, for the school, athletics and studying.
He did not give much thought to his mother’s question as he just made a quick decision to try athletics and ditch soccer then. It was a move that shocks him to date since he always wanted to be a great soccer player.
“Athletics was not a plan, that was not a dream for me. I wanted to be a soccer player, I wanted to do soccer because I was doing well in soccer and that was my dream. I was always the kid that the team used to plan around me. They were like, ‘We are going to kick the ball over and then you just run and go score.’,” Akani Simbine said.
“In high school, the principal found out that I was fast and he kind of told me that if I wanted to play soccer for the team then I had to run for the team and I was okay with that. I beat the matrics and the grade 11’s and then I became the fast kid in the school.
“The principal advised me to take sprinting seriously but I just wanted to play soccer. When I got to Matric and at that point, I got a coach and I did club soccer, school soccer and athletics and my mother advised me to focus on books and I let go of my soccer dream to athletics.”
He has been quite successful as a sprinter and is undoubtedly one of the greatest 100m in Africa joining the likes of Letsile Tebogo and Ferdinand Omanyala. This season, he bagged his first medal at the Olympic Games, anchoring the South African 4x100m relay team to a silver medal.
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13:00 - 18.11.2024
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Simbine has yet to bag a medal at a World Championships and next year might be his chance to achieve that feat. He has also yet to win an individual medal in any of the global championships aside from the Commonwealth Games.
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