South Africa sprint champion Akani Simbine broke the SA 100 metres record by 100th of a second at the 1st ASA Night Series meeting at the Pitditch Stadium in Pretoria on Tuesday night.
Akani Simbine, running his first race of the season at the Athletics South Africa (ASA) Nite Series meet, clocked 9.96 seconds to improve the mark he set last year by 0.01sec.
The 22-year-old Simbine is now the sole national record-holder ahead of Klapmuts sprinter Henricho Bruintjies with whom he previously share the 100m record of 9.97.
Emile Erasmus was second in 10.22 seconds while Thando Roto finished third in 10.29 seconds. Samkelo Sebela finished fourth in 10.36 seconds.
Simbine’s time is yet another Olympic qualifying mark, and if he can continue his upward curve in the coming months, he could push for a place in the final.
Carina Horn beat the Olympic Games qualifying standard of 11.32 secs after clocking 11.23 seconds to win the women’s race.
Alicia Conley also qualified for Rio 2016 with her 11.29 seconds second place finish. But Tebogo Mamatho missed out as she finished third in 11.40 seconds.
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[VIDEO] @AkaniSimbine smashed the #SouthAfrican 100m RECORD in 9.96 secs tonight #ASANiteSeries pic.twitter.com/68yaqZjrEm (via @MatTMQ) ????????
— Athletics Africa (@athleticsafrica) 8 March 2016