Rocket on a track, Akani Simbine stands as the rightful recipient of South Africa’s highest individual sporting honour, Sports Star of the Year, at the 19th SA Sports Awards.
The 32-year-old athlete from Kempton Park sprinted to the prestigious prize ahead of strong finalists including Proteas captain Temba Bavuma and Springbok hooker Malcolm Marx in the glittering halls of Sun City on the evening of 23 August 2026.
It was a crowning moment for a career defined not merely by medals but by relentless consistency, barrier-breaking speed and quiet leadership that has elevated South African athletics on the global stage.
“I didn’t know I was gonna win. A lot of the years I’ve been nominated for sportsman of the year and I’d always miss out. This year is different because I won it and my parents got to get on stage to say how it feels to be a parent and the journey they have travelled. That’s my biggest thank you to them for supporting me and supporting the journey.”
What truly sets Simbine apart is his extraordinary longevity and consistency. He became the first athlete in history to run a legal sub-10-second 100m in 11-consecutive seasons (2015–2025), surpassing the previous mark held by retired Jamaican sprint great Usain Bolt, who is an eight-time Olympic gold medallist and the world record holder in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay.
“When they made the announcement, they spoke about me running sub10’s for 11 years, I think I was the first man to ever do it.
“That is from the consistency and commitment from my coach, Werner Prinsloo. So, a big thanks to him as well and the team. And I keep improving and changing how sprinting looks in South Africa. Also, thanks to South Africa for letting me represent them on the world stage. I always do my best for them.”
Simbine has since extended the streak further. Earlier in the year, he amassed more than 50 legal sub-10 performances, a testament to meticulous preparation, resilience through injury and an unwavering work ethic. Multiple Diamond League victories and regular appearances among the world’s top sprinters have made him a fixture on the international circuit for more than a decade.
Simbine emerged from a background that initially pointed toward football. Athletics intervened.
In 2012, representing South Africa at the Zone 6 Games in Lusaka, he shattered the national junior 100m record with a time of 10.19 seconds. The breakthrough opened the door to senior competition and a place at the University of Pretoria’s Tuks High Performance Centre, where he balanced studies in information science with elite training under longtime coach Prinsloo.
A highly decorated sprinter with an extensive championship record, Simbine first dipped under the magical 10-second barrier in 2015, equalling the South African record of 9.97 seconds while winning gold at the World University Games in Gwangju, South Korea.
The next year Simbine lowered the national mark to 9.89 and reached the Olympic final in Rio, finishing fifth in 9.94 seconds, the first South African man to contest an Olympic 100m final.
He returned to the Olympic stage in Tokyo 2020, placing fourth and again in Paris 2024, where he produced the race of his life: a national-record 9.82 seconds for fourth place, agonisingly close to the podium. The same Games delivered the medal that had long eluded him in individual events, an Olympic silver in the men’s 4x100m relay, as he anchored a young South African quartet to a historic silver.
In 2018 Simbine won Commonwealth Games gold in the 100m (Gold Coast) and African Championships gold (Asaba), while collecting relay medals, including Commonwealth silver in the 4x100m (then a national record of 38.24). He has reached multiple World Championships 100m finals (5th in 2017 and 2022, fourth in 2019).
In 2025 he earned bronze in the 60m at the World Indoor Championships in Nanjing, the first by a South African man and helped win World Relays gold in the 4x100m in Guangzhou.
His personal bests are national records: 9.82 (100m) and a share of the African 4x100m record (37.49); he has also run 19.95 over 200m.
Beyond the stopwatch, Simbine has become a role model and builder of the sport. He has been vocal about the need to support young athletes, invest in development pathways and create opportunities at home.
The Simbine Classic meeting in Pretoria has drawn elite international fields and provided a high-quality platform for emerging South African talent. Younger sprinters such as Bayanda Walaza, himself Youth Sport Star of the Year in 2026, cite him as an inspiration. His Olympic flag-bearing role in Paris and his steady presence through near-misses have earned him respect across the sporting community.
The 2026 Sports Star of the Year award recognises precisely this blend of excellence and contribution. In a year that saw strong performances from cricket and rugby stars, voters elevated the sprinter whose speed, leadership and consistency have inspired a nation. Simbine responded with characteristic humility, noting that every race, sacrifice, setback and moment of belief formed part of the journey and that representing South Africa remains one of life’s greatest privileges.
At 32, with an Olympic silver, a national record that ranks among the fastest times in history, an unmatched sub-10 streak and now the nation’s top individual sporting honour, Simbine stands as the greatest sprinter South Africa has produced.
His story is not solely about the medals that sometimes arrived late or the ones that narrowly slipped away. It is about sustained excellence, the quiet rewriting of what is possible for African sprinters and the inspiration he continues to provide to the next generation.
The journey, as he says, continues and South Africa will keep watching, cheering and drawing pride from one of its most consistent champions.
