Lara van Niekerk landed Team SA’s first medal of the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham last night as she won the women’s 50m breaststroke, clocking a third consecutive Games record.
The Pretoria schoolgirl touched in 29.73 to finish ahead of England’s Imogen Clark (30.02) and Chelsea Hodges of Australia (30.05). Tatjana Schoenmaker, as she was at Gold Coast 2018, ended fourth in 30.41, while Kaylene Corbett — the third SA swimmer in the final — was sixth in 31.10.
Van Niekerk, the world championship bronze medallist in this event last month, had gone fastest in the heats and the semifinals on Friday in 29.82 and 29.80. She didn’t have the best start last night, but she held her form and swam hard as she hunted down Clark in the lane next to her to win with some room to spare.
Her victory sets up Team SA with a great chance of scooping a golden clean-sweep in the women’s breaststroke races, with Schoenmaker looking to defend the 100m and 200m crowns she won four years ago.
In fact, they could get at least two medallists in each of the two longer events.
Pieter Coetzé was set to swim for gold in the 100m backstroke later last night.
In netball, the Proteas were downed 68-49 by Jamaica in their opener.
Her victory sets up Team SA with a great chance of scooping a golden clean-sweep in the women’s breaststroke races
The Blitzboks too were looking like making the podium yesterday after smashing 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 ended up losing 33-12 and being sent into the consolation placings section of the knockout stages.
The 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 airborne 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 since 2010. Featherweight boxer Amzolele Dyeyi was comprehensively outpointed by India’s Hussamuddin Mohammed, a bantamweight bronze medallist four years ago.
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