Move over‚ Jamaica; watch out‚ America — South Africa’s sprint sensations are lit. Akani Simbine spearheaded an impressive 18 hours of homegrown speed at the weekend‚ with his Tuks teammates‚ Clarence Munyai and Thando Roto‚ producing times that offer depth to SA’s potentially formidable 4x100m relay team.

Simbine’s name — like Wayde van Niekerk’s and Anaso Jobodwana’s — is already in lights‚ although he cranked up the luminance with electrifying runs in his season-opener in a Gauteng North league meet at the Tuks athletics stadium in Pretoria on Saturday.

Simbine became only the seventh man in history to achieve a same-day sub-10-second/sub-20 double in the 100m and 200m‚ first going 9.93sec and some two hours later breaching the 200m barrier for the first time in 19.95.

The other six feature Ato Boldon and Justin Gatlin and five of them boast Olympic silverware.

But Simbine’s effort has come earlier in the year than any of the others managed‚ more than a month before the mid-April 2002 performance by American Shawn Crawford‚ who went 9.99 and 19.85‚ also in Pretoria.

Coach Werner Prinsloo expects Simbine‚ holder of the 9.89 100m SA record‚ to going much faster by the world championships in London.

“The plan is for him to be at 100% in August for the world champs‚ not to peak before that‚” he said. “Look‚ I’m not someone to do predictions‚ but the aim is to go low 9.8 at least.

“The big thing this year and going forward is medals.”

With Usain Bolt expected to retire at the end of this season‚ and American veteran Gatlin now 35‚ the 100m and 200m crowns will soon be looking for new suitors.

Simbine‚ who opened last season with 9.96 before ending fifth in the Olympic 100m final‚ said so far in training they had focused only on the first half of the 100m.

“I started the race saying ‘okay‚ I’m literally going to run the first 60m because that’s where we are in training‚ and if I put together my first 60 then the last 40 I’ll just go through with the momentum’.

“Getting out the blocks wasn’t so great because the starter didn’t wait for us. I was the last one to settle‚ so I was still on my marks when she had said ‘set’.”

This was the eighth time Simbine‚ 23‚ has broken 10 seconds‚ and his sixth in 12 months.

“Last year we worked on the notion that if I go on the track and have a bad race‚ it has to be a 9.9‚” he added.

Behind him in both races was 19-year-old Munyai‚ also with two personal bests — 10.20 and 20.10‚ which ranks him fifth on the all-time under-20 200m list and eclipsed the 22-year-old African junior record held by compatriot Riaan Dempers.

Munyai even led Simbine coming out of the bend in the 200m.

“I don’t see Clarence as a youngster anymore‚” said Simbine.

“If he lines up next to me I see him as a competitor. It’s the same as if I see Bolt or Gatlin or any of the top guys … he needs to see himself as one of us now.”

Roto‚ competing in the Varsity Cup meet in Potchefstroom on Friday night‚ went 10.18 in the 100m‚ taking 0.09sec off his previous best. - TMG Digital