Bayanda Walaza and Akani Simbine (right) at the SA Athletics championships (Simnikiwe Xabanisa/News24)
It didn’t take long for the running style of South Africa’s latest sprinting prodigy, Bayanda Walaza, to be a topic of discussion at Athletics South Africa’s (ASA) SA Senior National Track and Field Championships in Pietermaritzburg on Thursday.
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Multiple national sprinting champion – and the country’s fastest 100m sprinter in history – Akani Simbine said he “worried” for the youngster’s career prospects if he carried on with the ungainly running style that has brought him his rapid personal best times of 10.13sec for the 100m and 20.34sec in the 200m to earn him the unofficial title of “fastest teenager in the world”.
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