Akani Simbine narrowly misses podium in third consecutive Olympic 100m final

South Africa’s Akani Simbine finished in another dreaded fourth place in the men’s 100m final at the Olympic Games in Paris 2024.

Simbine clocked a national record of 9.82 seconds but it was not enough on the purple track at Stade de France on Sunday (4 August). The former African record holder who made his third consecutive Olympic 100m final. missed a spot on the podium by a heartbreaking 0.01s.

World champion Noah Lyles took gold in 9.784 seconds, a mere five-thousandths of a second ahead of Jamaica's Kishane Thompson. The USA’s Fred Kerley clinched bronze in 9.81

The 30-year-old Simbine missed the podiums by the narrowest of margins again after finishing fifth in Rio 2016 and fourth in Tokyo 2020 in 2021. In Brazil, the margin was 0.02s. Five years later in Tokyo, he was denied a precious medal by 0.04s.

Simbine shock his head in disbelief.

The South African had his game face on throughout the heats and semi-finals stepping up to the blocks in the final as one of the podium favourites - only to be denied a medal once again.

The prolific sub-10 seconds sprinter and Letsile Tebogo from neighbouring country Botswana were the only two representatives from Africa in the final.

“It is a moment in history. There is no South African that has been in three Olympic finals and placed higher than me,” Simbine said after the race.

“I am the one that is doing these things for the first time for every South African. That is a great thing on its own.

“I might not be getting the medal but what I am doing is changing how sprinting is seen in South Africa and motivating a lot of kids.”

Simbine will have another chance at finally getting his hands on an Olympic medal when the South African team lines up in the men’s 4x100m relay starting with the heats on Thursday (8 August).

The team would fancy their chances of at least making it into the final for a shot at a medal after all three of their 100m sprinters – Simbine, Shaun Maswanganyi, and Benjamin Richardson – made it into the semi-finals.

“We are not done, we are coming back in the relay. We’ve got three good guys that were in the semis. I was in the final,” Simbine said.

“We’ve got another shot in the relay and we are going to go for it!”