Sprinter Akani Simbine will finally have the luxury of having his coach travel with him throughout the European summer‚ thanks to an R8-million‚ three-year sponsorship deal announced on Tuesday.
Simbine was a schoolkid when he joined Werner Prinsloo in 2010‚ but for much of the past few seasons he’s headed into the heat of battle without his trusted second at his side.
Prinsloo got over for the 2016 Olympics in Rio and the 2017 world championships in London‚ where Simbine finished fifth in the 100m final on both occasions.
The agreement with fibre connectivity provider Liquid Telecom‚ which will run until the Tokyo 2020 Olympics‚ will assist the duo in several ways.
Not only will Prinsloo be able to travel with Simbine‚ but he’s also free to work with the sprinter in the mornings‚ having given up his IT sales job.
“When he [Simbine] got to the track [in the afternoons] he would sometimes still have the gym in his legs from the morning work-out.”
Footwear sponsor adidas is complementing the deal‚ arranging for Prinsloo to do the equivalent of an apprenticeship with a top coach‚ either Usain Bolt’s former trainer Glen Mills in Jamaica or Florida-based Lance Brauman‚ who handles Olympic 400m champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo of Bahamas.
Simbine said in the past he had struggled perfecting his block starts abroad without his coach there to scrutinise him in training.
“It’s a lot of self-doubt and confusion‚ sometimes you believe you’re doing the right thing and you’re moving‚ and other times it feels like‚ ‘nah‚ it’s not going’.
“Now he can be there and he can see that and he fix what needs to be fixed.”
Prinsloo has already tweaked the training programme for this year‚ incorporating one key element from 2016 when Simbine set his 9.89sec SA 100m record.
“In 2016 we focused a lot on his starts because we knew that’s going to be the critical point if he wants to get in with the big boys.
"So I’m sort of going back to that sort of thinking‚ making sure he consistently has good starts in every race.
“If he does he has one the best top-end speeds in the world‚ he really does.”
But last year Simbine’s starts weren’t as good.
“The focus shifted a bit in 2017 which was maybe not the right thing to do‚” admitted Prinsloo.
“We knew he was going to double at world champs‚ the 100‚ 200‚ so I went a bit to the endurance side of things ...
“He’s not going to do a lot of 200s this year.”
Simbine believes he is capable of lowering his record substantially‚ although he didn’t want to be drawn on how fast he could go.
“To be at the top he needs to go low 9.8‚ if not 9.7‚” said Prinsloo.
“He needs to be consistently running 9.8s.”
R8-million sponsorship allows Simbine's mentor to coach fulltime
Sprinter Akani Simbine will finally have the luxury of having his coach travel with him throughout the European summer‚ thanks to an R8-million‚ three-year sponsorship deal announced on Tuesday.
Simbine was a schoolkid when he joined Werner Prinsloo in 2010‚ but for much of the past few seasons he’s headed into the heat of battle without his trusted second at his side.
Prinsloo got over for the 2016 Olympics in Rio and the 2017 world championships in London‚ where Simbine finished fifth in the 100m final on both occasions.
The agreement with fibre connectivity provider Liquid Telecom‚ which will run until the Tokyo 2020 Olympics‚ will assist the duo in several ways.
Not only will Prinsloo be able to travel with Simbine‚ but he’s also free to work with the sprinter in the mornings‚ having given up his IT sales job.
“When he [Simbine] got to the track [in the afternoons] he would sometimes still have the gym in his legs from the morning work-out.”
Footwear sponsor adidas is complementing the deal‚ arranging for Prinsloo to do the equivalent of an apprenticeship with a top coach‚ either Usain Bolt’s former trainer Glen Mills in Jamaica or Florida-based Lance Brauman‚ who handles Olympic 400m champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo of Bahamas.
Simbine said in the past he had struggled perfecting his block starts abroad without his coach there to scrutinise him in training.
“It’s a lot of self-doubt and confusion‚ sometimes you believe you’re doing the right thing and you’re moving‚ and other times it feels like‚ ‘nah‚ it’s not going’.
“Now he can be there and he can see that and he fix what needs to be fixed.”
Prinsloo has already tweaked the training programme for this year‚ incorporating one key element from 2016 when Simbine set his 9.89sec SA 100m record.
“In 2016 we focused a lot on his starts because we knew that’s going to be the critical point if he wants to get in with the big boys.
"So I’m sort of going back to that sort of thinking‚ making sure he consistently has good starts in every race.
“If he does he has one the best top-end speeds in the world‚ he really does.”
But last year Simbine’s starts weren’t as good.
“The focus shifted a bit in 2017 which was maybe not the right thing to do‚” admitted Prinsloo.
“We knew he was going to double at world champs‚ the 100‚ 200‚ so I went a bit to the endurance side of things ...
“He’s not going to do a lot of 200s this year.”
Simbine believes he is capable of lowering his record substantially‚ although he didn’t want to be drawn on how fast he could go.
“To be at the top he needs to go low 9.8‚ if not 9.7‚” said Prinsloo.
“He needs to be consistently running 9.8s.”