Werner Prinsloo chuckled as he joked that his greatest achievement in life was knowing Charlize Theron, albeit for a couple of years during primary school.
That was long before she became a Hollywood star and he had established himself as a top sprint coach, fine-tuning the lightning bolt called Akani Simbine.
Their 2021 international campaign kicks off in the Diamond League meet in Florence on Thursday night, with the ultimate target being a 100m podium finish at the Tokyo Games on 1 August.
A race that will last fewer than 10 seconds could define an incredible journey that started more than a decade ago when dreams of Olympic glory would have been fantasy.
Prinsloo, 44, sipped on a cappuccino in a Boksburg bakery and reflected on his trackside career, explaining that it happened because of something almost mystical.
He discovered the passion to coach when he was in grade 9, attending a clinic run by Les Archer. "I sat in his lectures listening to him talk about training and programming and 'whoa, this is cool, I like this'.
"I bought his manual, I spent my tuckshop money on the book and I remember spending weeks after that going through his book and reading it and learning."
That triggered a thirst to learn more and a young Prinsloo, a sprinter who played decent games of rugby and tennis, headed to the local library. "I spent my school holidays reading books on sprint training and exercising."
It all made sense to him. "I didn't struggle to understand it. I could picture it. It was easy for me."
Prinsloo wanted to go to university to study sport management or teaching, which he saw as a vehicle to coaching. But his electrician father didn't have the money, so he went to a technical college and got a diploma in electronics.
His focus on athletics gave way to his other passion, playing drums. "I always had this idea that I would be this huge rock star, be in a rock band, tour the world. I played in bands."
But the beat of his athletics heart drew him back in the mid-2000s. "I still can't explain what it was," he said. He went through his old coaching books and the old spark roared into a furnace.
Knowing he wanted to coach, Prinsloo found a mentor in Owen van Niekerk and started to build a training group at the Barnard stadium in Kempton Park. He'd been coaching for about three years when he put an advert in the local knock-and-drop.
He received an inquiring phone call from the parents of a teenaged Simbine in 2010. "Akani came along and that changed my whole life.
"The universe put us together for a reason. Something knew we would cross paths and knew it would change our lives. It was fate, I guess."
After just a few months together Simbine won the youth category at the Central Gauteng championships. In 2012 Simbine went 10.19sec to break the SA under-20 100m record.
"I realised this is the talent I'm working with. I need to step up. I can't sit back. I made it my mission from then on to stay ahead of him. I needed to be one step ahead of him in terms of his performance and his development . if he was going to make it.
"I just pushed myself as a coach. Researching, thinking. I was obsessed, I was just thinking of ways to get him better and better. Research, talking to other coaches, listening to coaches."
Prinsloo's reading material has become more scientific. "I read these things because these are biokineticists and scientists and my take is, instead of listening to coach say 'this is my opinion on sprinting', I would rather read the scientists' research that says 'this is what we found that makes you faster'. I use the science and apply it in my own special way."
Simbine finished second in the 2014 race where Simon Magakwe became the first South African to break 10 seconds. He broke the barrier himself the next year and in 2016 lowered the SA record to 9.89 and finished fifth at the Olympics.
He's been in the top five since then, and in Pretoria earlier this year Simbine was, in all likelihood, denied another national record because of the advantage of a tailwind.
"I'm quite proud of the achievements that we had given that it was just me and him. We had to learn the hard way. We grew together in the sport. He didn't know anything, I didn't know anything. We grew together and we learned so much together over the years."
What started as a coach-the-commander-athlete-the-soldier relationship has transformed into a partnership.
But it hasn't always been easy, like when Simbine ended fourth at the 2019 world championships in Doha. The plan had been to win a medal.
"We were gunning for that medal in Doha so that fourth place hurt badly. It cut really deep. He was angry at everybody after that, including me."
They've had their spats along the way, but their relationship is defined by respect.
"I think that's been the secret to this little success of ours, is this connection. Even though sometimes we want to wring each other's necks, we let it go.
"We don't mix in each others' personal lives. In our 11 years he's never been to my house. We know there's a line, we want to keep it professional, but also friendly."
It was through Simbine that Prinsloo received a sponsorship a few years back that allowed him to quit his day job and realise his fantasy of coaching fulltime.
"I was shocked when I heard ... I still can't believe it. It was a surreal moment, that all those years of dreaming and now it's going to happen."
The married father-of-one has travelled far in athletics, but he stays close to his roots, still living in his East Rand hood that has produced quite a few famous people, notably the Oscar-winning Theron.
For a couple of years he and his older brother used to chat to her on the bus they took to and from school. "I always claim that is my greatest achievement, that I knew Charlize," he quipped with a smile.
Well, only until Simbine makes the Olympic podium.
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