{"id":34241,"date":"2026-05-11T16:15:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T14:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=34241"},"modified":"2026-05-11T17:17:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T15:17:12","slug":"sas-simbine-steps-aside-from-african-championships","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/sas-simbine-steps-aside-from-african-championships\/","title":{"rendered":"Simbine steps aside from African Championships"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>South Africa\u2019s (SA) Akani Simbine says he will not compete at the upcoming African Senior Championships in Ghana because he wants younger athletes to benefit from the opportunity.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The championships are scheduled to take place from May 12 to 17.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Simbine said his decision has nothing to do with injury or form, but is instead about creating space for the next generation of athletes to gain international experience.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The SA sprint star explained that he has already achieved a great deal on the African stage and now wants to contribute to athletics in different ways.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The world indoor 60m bronze medallist recently launched the successful Simbine Classics at Pilditch Stadium, an event aimed at promoting athletics and creating opportunities for local competitors.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Simbine believes competing at continental championships can be career-changing for younger athletes and hopes stepping aside will help them grow on the international stage.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;ChannelAfrica&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":33363,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-34241","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Akani Simbine says he will not compete at the upcoming African Senior Championships in Ghana","published_date":"2026-05-11 15:57:50","news_description":"Akani Simbine says he will not compete at the upcoming African Senior Championships in Ghana","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34241","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":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34241\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34257,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34241\/revisions\/34257"}],"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=34241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=34241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}