Rio 2016 - Golden night for Team South Africa
South Africa had competitors in action across three sporting codes on Sunday. The night was dominated by Wayde van Niekerk's exceptional gold medal performance in the men's 400 metres. Here’s a list of how Team SA fared:
ATHLETICS
Women’s marathon: Dina Lebo Phalula finished 63rd in a time of 2hr 41min 46sec, Christine Kalmer ended in 96th position with a time of 2:48:24. Irvette van Zyl was injured and did not start.
Phalula was 76:58 at halfway in 64th position so in terms of positioning she was extremely consistent. She ended up 17:42 behind Kenyan winner Jemima Sumgong.
Kalmer, whose sister Rene ran the last Olympic Marathon in London four years ago, ended 24:20 off the winning time.
She went through halfway in 1:18:18 (80th position.).
What they said:
(Phalula): " It was a good experience being my first Olympics. In the end it was just to get to the finish line. Conditions were so hot but I couldn’t be a spectator.
If you’re not there at the finish line you’re not an Olympian. I was just running, with no watch, I just hung in there and wanted to get to the finish."
(Kalmer) : " I was disappointed. I had a good start and then tried to slow down but then I ended in no man’s land. I would have really been happy with a time of 2:38.
I tried hard to latch on to people but never really managed to. The scenery was really beautiful but now I just need a break, the build up of more than a year was a long time."
Men’s 100m semi-final: Akani Simbine ended third in a time of 9.98 in the first of three semi-finals, behind France’s Jimmy Vicault (9.95) and Ben Yousef Meite of Coite d’Ivoire (9.97).
Olympic champion and world recordholder Usain Bolt led the way into the final with a 9.86 season’s best.
Men’s 400m final: Wayde van Niekerk obliterated the world record with a barnstorming run of 43.03 seconds to add to his 2014 Commonwealth Games silver and World Championships gold medal of last year.
Previous best was Michael American Johnson’s 43.18 in Seville 17 years ago.
Men’s 100m final, Simbine went on to finish fifth in 9.94 as Usain Bolt defended his Olympic title with a win in a season’s best 9.81seconds.
GOLF
Men’s final round: Brandon Stone carded a final round four-over 75 for a tally of 293. He had rounds of 75, 72, 71 and 75 and was tied 55th. Jaco van Zyl was tied for 43rd with a final score of 286 and rounds of 71, 74, 70 and 71.
SAILING Men’s 470 class, races seven, eight and nine, Asenathi Jim and Roger Hudson finished 18th and 11th respectively with race nine having to be rescheduled.