Since when were Commonwealth Games medals so difficult to capture?
One factor is that Birmingham 2022 is offering more medal opportunities to women than to men, at 135 to 133.
And for a country like SA where women’s sport lags so far behind the men in most codes — with the exception of only a few like swimming — that will make podiums even harder to ascend.
Apart from the poolside trio of Tatjana Schoenmaker, Lara van Niekerk and Kaylene Corbett, who arrived in England looking to give SA a golden cleansweep across the three women’s breaststroke races over 50m, 100m and 200m, there are few other SA powerhouses.
Medals are going to be tough to win over the next week or so, and don’t be surprised if SA deliver their worst performance in years.
It won’t be as low as the 11 medals, two of them gold, at Victoria 1994. But it may well not surpass their next lowest haul of 33 gongs, nine of them gold, four years later in Malaysia.
Back then, when there were 212 medal events, that earned SA fifth spot on the medals table. These days it won’t get them into the top seven.
By last night SA should have got onto the scoresheet through Van Niekerk and backstroker Pieter Coetzé.
The Blitzboks too were looking good as they smashed Scotland 34-0 in their final group match yesterday to top Pool B, running in six tries. Angelo Davids scored three of them, two from grubbers where the ball rose perfectly into his hands and one from a cross-kick that fell into his arms in front of the line.
They went into last night’s quarterfinal against Canada harbouring hopes of repeating the golden success of the team at Glasgow 2014.
Liske Lategan scored the SA women’s rugby team’s first try of the tournament to give them an early 5-0 lead against Scotland in their final pool encounter. But it wasn’t enough as they lost 33-12 to be condemned to the consolation placings section of the knockout stages.
Don’t be surprised if SA deliver their worst performance in years
The SA men’s hockey team had to settle for a 2-2 draw in their opener against Pakistan, but it was a heartbreaking one after conceding the equaliser in the final minute of play.
SA never trailed in this contest, going up 1-0 late in the first quarter through Connor Beauchamp. Rizwan Ali levelled matters in the second quarter with a power flick from a penalty corner. Matthew Guise-Brown gave SA the lead again in the final quarter, from a penalty flick.
But, with less than a minute to go, Pakistan won a penalty corner. SA goalkeeper Gowan Jones parried the shot, but Afraz latched onto the air-borne ball and slapped it into the net with a double backhand.
Lawn bowls has been a generous source of silverware for SA in the past, but they are still in the round-robin phase. Keep an eye on them.
Boxing has been through a drought, with one bronze from the three previous Games. Featherweight fighter Amzolele Dyeyi was comprehensively outpointed by India’s Hussamuddin Mohammed, a bantamweight bronze medallist four years ago.
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