Sprinter Akani Simbine and hurdler Zeney van der Walt walked away with the two main prizes at Athletics South Africa’s inaugural awards function that turned into a marathon session. 

Simbine, fifth at the 2022 world championships, took silver at the African championships and Commonwealth Games and won his fifth Diamond League crown in Stockholm last year. 

His mentor, Werner Prinsloo, was named coach of the year.

Van der Walt clocked a couple of personal bests during the season, winning continental gold in the 400m hurdles and 4x400m relay, and taking bronze at Birmingham 2022. 

The early part of the evening in the southern reaches of Johannesburg was packed with speeches.

Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi suggested that his government work alongside Sport South Africa, formerly known as Sascoc, to build an Olympic stadium in a township. Having a bona fide Olympic Stadium would require actually hosting a Games. 

And Sport SA president Barry Hendricks reiterated that the umbrella organisation had secured a R66m sponsorship from a corporate that is yet to be named, but he added the caveat that most of that money, to be received over four years, would go to the athletes through their Operation Excellence funding programme. 

He also restated that Sascoc was looking to sign three more headline sponsors. 

The event lasted far longer than the 2 hr 40 min 13 sec 50km world record set by Stephen Mokoka, one of Simbine’s rivals for the top male athlete trophy. 

Male and female prospects of the year went to sprinter Benjamin Richardson and javelin-thrower Mckyla van der Westhuizen. 

World age-group champions Lythe Pillay and US-based Mine de Klerk took the under-20 male and female awards. Pillay won the 400m and De Klerk retained her shot put crown while also taking discus bronze.