Sinesipho Dambile lands key firsts with 200m victory

Sinesipho Dambile bagged a few key firsts with his impressive 200m triumph in Doha on Friday night.

The 24-year-old stormed through in a 19.74sec personal best to land his maiden Diamond League victory and give South Africa its first season in which speedsters have won Diamond League races across all three sprint distances.

Gift Leotlela claimed the 100m in the first Diamond League meet in Shanghai last month, and Zakithi Nene took the 400m in Stockholm earlier this month.

In 2023, 2022 and 2017, South African sprinters won Diamond League races in two of the three events — either 100m and 200m or 100m and 400m — but this is the first sprint trifecta achieved in the same season.

Since South Africa returned to the showpiece in 1994 only England, Jamaica and Canada have won that event — and you have to go back to 1982 to find a different winner in Nigeria

And it underlines the potential of the country’s 4x100m relay team which, at full strength, could feature Dambile, Leotlela, veteran Akani Simbine and Bayanda Walaza, who hammered out a 9.94 winning the 100m at the Golden Spike in Ostrava this week.

Overwhelming favourites

Move over, Jamaica! Step aside, England! Take a back seat, Canada! South Africa should be the overwhelming favourites for the men’s relay at the Commonwealth Games that gets under way in Glasgow next month.

Since South Africa returned to the showpiece in 1994 only England, Jamaica and Canada have won that event — and you have to go back to 1982 to find a different winner in Nigeria.

A fully fit 4x100m team of Walaza, Dambile, Leotlela and Simbine should drive fear not only into the hearts of every other outfit preparing for Glasgow 2026, but also those looking ahead to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

South Africa took silver at World Relays in Gaborone last month without Walaza, Dambile and Leotlela, but they still posted a 37.49 national record that ranks them as the sixth fastest team of all time.

Walaza, Dambile and Leotlela are all stablemates under coach Thabo “Coach T” Matebedi and have the opportunity to practise handovers at regular training sessions.

Only the third-leg runner — perhaps Leotlela — would need to perfect the final transition with Simbine, who has anchored the team since the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

Simbine returns to action at the FBK Games at Hengelo today. Udeme Okon, a member of the national 4x400m team that won world championship bronze in Tokyo last year, is competing in the 400m and Marioné Fourie is in the 100m hurdles line-up.