{"id":33362,"date":"2026-04-30T10:41:58","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T08:41:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=33362"},"modified":"2026-04-30T10:41:58","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T08:41:58","slug":"team-sa-upbeat-as-simbine-returns-for-world-relays","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/team-sa-upbeat-as-simbine-returns-for-world-relays\/","title":{"rendered":"Team SA upbeat as Simbine returns for World Relays"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>The 18th edition of the World Athletics Relay Championships will take place in Gaborone, Botswana, this weekend, with places at the World Championships up for grabs.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>There is good news for Team South Africa (SA) as Star sprinter, Akani Simbine, who pulled up with what looked like an injury in the 100m final at the Simbine Classic in Pretoria, Gauteng province on Tuesday evening, is available for the championships.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Home favourite Simbine pulled up injured midway through the race at his own event, the Simbine Classics at the Pilditch Stadium, on Tuesday, and that caused concern amongst the South African athletics fans, just four days before the World Athletics Relays in Gaborone, Botswana, but his coach, Werner Prinsloo, says he slowed down as a precautionary measure.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cIt\u2019s just preventative. He felt something, but it\u2019s all good; he\u2019ll be ready to run the relays this weekend. In terms of his performance on Tuesday, we\u2019re very happy with the opener. It\u2019s a late opener for us this year, but I think it\u2019ll work out for us,\u201d says Prinsloo.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>SA\u00a0became the fourth different team to claim the men\u2019s 4 by 100m title at the World Athletics Relays with their win in Guangzhou, China, last year. It was World indoor bronze medalist, Simbine, along with Bayanda Walaza, Bradley Nkoana and Sinesipho Dambile who raced to victory in a time of 37. 6-1 seconds.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Prinsloo is confident his team is capable of successfully defending the title in Gaborone.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cThey all do. As I said, many of these athletes have been together for the past couple of years and have competed in the Olympics, World Championships, and World Relays. So they gel easily. As you get closer to the weekend, you can feel the tension rising, and everyone pulls together,\u201d he adds.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;SABC&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":33363,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[78,20],"class_list":["post-33362","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"SA\u00a0became the fourth different team to claim the men\u2019s 4 by 100m title at the World Athletics Relays.","published_date":"","news_description":"SA\u00a0became the fourth different team to claim the men\u2019s 4 by 100m title at the World Athletics Relays.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/33362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/33362\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33364,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/33362\/revisions\/33364"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=33362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}