AKANI SIMBINE BREAKS AFRICAN 100 METRE RECORD

South African sprinter, Akani Simbine, gave the other sprinters who qualified for the Tokyo Olympic Games a warning when he smashed the African record in Hungary on Tuesday.

Simbine managed to knock 0.05 seconds off his own South African record which he set back in 2016, also in Hungary.

With his new time of 9.84 seconds, he knocked 0.01 off the current African record, making him the fastest man on the continent.

Simbine, who has been based in Europe since May, told The Sowetan that his aim was to go to the Olympics with confidence.

"I feel really great breaking the record, it's something that I've been chasing for the longest time. But the job is not done yet. This was just the first tick towards going to Tokyo. We had to do it now and I'm glad we did it on time."

The 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games was postponed last year due to the pandemic. It's now scheduled to start on Friday 23 July. The first round of the men's 100-metre event will take place on 31 July. The semi-finals and final are scheduled for 1 August.  

The current world record of 9.77 is held by American Trayvon Bromell. Bromell has also qualified for the Olympic Games. With Simbine's current time, it puts him in second place worldwide after Bromell.

Watch the World Athletics video below to see how Akani Simbine broke the 100-metre African world record to make him the fastest man on the continent.

Image credit: The South African