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COACH: BELIEVE IN YOURSELF, AKANI!

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Akani Simbine of the Tuks/HPC athletics club is gradually improving on the track.
Akani Simbine of the Tuks/HPC athletics club is gradually improving on the track.

GETTING out of the starting blocks that little bit quicker will be one of the things the South African 100m record holder, Akani Simbine, will focus on in earnest as part of his final preparation for the Olympic Games in Rio.

Werner Prinsloo, his coach, says once Simbine is at full speed he can keep up with the world’s best and even outrun them. But if he wants to be a truly top international sprinter he will have to improve his start.

“Another thing Akani will need to focus on is his mental preparation. It is important that he should arrive in Rio with the right mind-set. He has to believe in his abilities as a sprinter. He still seems to have a little bit of self-doubt at times and there is no need for it. He is a good sprinter,” he said.

The Tuks/HPC athlete will compete in only two more meetings before the Games.

The first will be the Diamond League meeting in Monaco on 15 July. He also plans to compete in Budapest on 18 July, where he will run the 100m as well as the 200m.

Prinsloo stressed that it was important for Simbine to take part in the 200m alongside the 100m.

“I have no doubt that Akani has the ability to run a time faster than 20 seconds in the 200m. Again it will be important to make sure he gets off to a good start in the 200m.

“Because he is a shorter athlete, he needs to run slightly harder than the taller athletes, but once he reaches his top speed there is no stopping him.

“The only reason he withdrew from competing in the 200m at the African Championships in Durban was because he was feeling slightly unwell. I think it was because he was still suffering from jetlag after the long flight from Boston to South Africa.”

According to Prinsloo they will be based in Italy from next week in the build-up to the Games.

Another Tuks/HPC athlete, Carina Horn, who ran 11.07sec at the African Championships, just missing out on breaking the SA record, is excited about the times she might be running in the next few weeks.

“A few weeks ago I was complaining to my coach, Rainer Schopf, about training too hard. He told me to trust him because he was working according to a plan that would get me to my best at the right time. Considering the way my running times have improved in the past weeks, it will be wrong not to do what he tells me to. The hard training I have been doing is definitely paying dividends.”

Horn admits to being excited, but also disappointed, about running 11.07sec.

“To dip under 11.10sec is exciting but it was also disappointing to come so close to setting a new South African record and miss it.”

Asked whether she believed there was something like the perfect race, Horn said no.

“At first I thought there was but then I realised there can never be such a thing as the perfect race. If I should run 11.05sec tomorrow, setting a new record, I would immediately start wondering what I could do to run even faster the next time I race. There will always be a new goal to strive towards.”

Horn will compete at the London Diamond League meeting on 22 July and maybe at one or two more meetings before the Games.

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