Akani Simbine bounced back to form when finishing a fine second in the men’s 100m final at the Diamond League meeting in Zurich on Thursday night, but for teenager Bayanda Walaza, an injury forced him to pull up just weeks out of the World Championships in Tokyo.
Walaza, the 19-year-old Team SA sensation and one of the 4x100m men’s relay squad who took silver at last year’s Paris Olympics and was named SA Sports Team of the Year, looked to be leading the field at 60 metres when he was left clutching his hamstring.
As he slowed, Simbine surged through to get to wining one-hundredth of a second of American Christiaan Coleman, who won in 9.97sec with Simbine taking second in 9.98. Ackeem Blake was third in 9.99 and the third South African Olympian in the final, Shaun Maswanganyi, was seventh in 10.17.
In the women’s 400m hurdles, Zeney van der Walt finished eighth running in the tough inside lane. The Dutch superstar Femke Bol won in a meeting record 52.18, with Van der Walt crossing the line in 56.90.
Outside of Diamond League finals, but on the night’’s Zurich programme, Rogail Joseph was fifth in the women’s 400m hurdles in 56.00.
