The South African track and field season will gain momentum next week when South Africa’s fastest man, Akani Simbine, lines up over 60 metres in a Simbine Classic Shootout race to be held at Pilditch Stadium on Friday, 21 February 2025.
As he looks ahead to next month’s World Athletics Indoor Championships, the experienced sprinter will test himself in his second race of the year (and his first on home soil) at the Classic Shootout, which will be held in conjunction with the A-Bond Inter-High schools track and field meeting.
Simbine, the national record holder over the 100m distance (9.82 seconds), set an outdoor 60m personal best of 6.53 in a Classic Shootout race at Pilditch in February 2023, and he will line up as the firm favourite.
Other contenders
He will have to be at his best, however, against a 60m field which also features the likes of Rivaldo Roberts and Gift Leotlela.
Roberts, who holds a 100m personal best of 10.09, finished third in the 60m sprint last week at the Simbine Classic Shootout held in conjunction with the Curro Podium Grand final.
He clocked 6.66 after putting up a fight in that race, and Roberts will fancy his chances of causing an upset against Simbine, the former African 100m record holder.
Leotlela, a former World Athletics U20 Championships 200m medallist, has also been in solid form after setting a 60m personal best of 6.66 at an indoor meeting in the Czech Republic earlier this month.
He, too, will aim to upset the applecart as some of the country’s fastest athletes look to showcase their early form in the 2025 campaign.
The Simbine Classic Shootout at the A-Bond Inter-High will also feature a 60m invitational open women’s race, as well as 150m contests for men and women.
* Featured image of Akani Simbine by Cecilia van Bers
