As the only top-tier sprinter yet to taste defeat over 100 meters in 2025, Akani Simbine enters the London Diamond League not just as a contender, but as the man most likely to disrupt the narrative surrounding Noah Lyles’ much-hyped return.
While attention swirls around a potential showdown between Lyles and Botswana’s rising star Letsile Tebogo, Simbine has quietly and efficiently gone about his business.
His victories in Xiamen and Shanghai showcased a level of composure and top-end speed that has become his calling card. Add to that a 60-meter bronze at the World Indoor Championships and a recent 4x100m silver in Paris, Simbine is in the best shape of his career.
“Having that tag as the nearly man, it’s noise at the end of the day,” he told BBC Sport.
“I don’t see it like that. I see it as an action that’s never given up on trying to be the best.”
In contrast, Noah Lyles enters London in the midst of a comeback season. The reigning Olympic champion has shown flashes of his championship form and continues to sharpen his early-phase execution. Tebogo, meanwhile, brings the intrigue of youth, having developed a more explosive and controlled drive phase this year.
But while their rivalry dominates the headlines, it’s Simbine who currently holds the performance edge. Not only is he unbeaten, but he’s also delivering consistent, championship-level times, and doing so without the media frenzy. His timing, in both race phases and seasonal peak, is beginning to align perfectly with the demands of a major final.
Still, the sprinting world may not get the full spectacle it hoped for. A recent update suggests Kishane Thompson may not line up in London after all, an absence that would dull the Lyles-kishane hype, but further sharpen focus on Simbine’s quiet supremacy.
