Rio 2016 - Team SA Wrap - LJ, Wenda impress in hurdles
LJ van Zyl and Wenda Nel were among the bright spots for Team South Africa on Monday as they both progressed to their respective semi-finals in the 400 metre hurdles. Here's how Team SA fared on Monday:
ATHLETICS
Women’s 200m: Alyssa Conley was fourth in heat three of nine with a time of 23.17 (0.32sec outside her season’s best) and Justine
Palframan ended fifth in a time of 23.33 in the next heat.
In a nutshell: Conley’s heat went to Caribbean athletes Michelle-Lee Ahye (Trinidad and Tobago) and Jamaica’s Simone Facey who grabbed the two automatic qualifying spots in 22.50 and 22.78.
In Palframan’s race (she also ran the 400m qualifying heats two days ago), she also missed out on the automatic slots as current African Games champion Marie-Josee Ta Lou of Coite d’Ivoire won in 22.31 from newly crowned world 100m champion Elaine Thompson of Jamaica (23.63).
Conley and Palframan were ranked 36th and 43rd respectively after the completion of the heats. To progress they would have had to run a 22.94 on Monday.
Men’s triple jump qualifying: Group B - Khotso Mokoena finished 10th in Group B with a best of 16.51m on the day.
In a nutshell: After opening with a 15.13 leap, the 2008 Olympic long jump silver medallist improved to a 16.51 and then had a final leap of 16.44. That left him in 21st spot overall. Automatic qualifying for the final was pegged at 16.95m or at least the 12 best performers.
So Mokoena misses out and would have needed 10 cm more on the day to go through.
Men’s 400m hurdles heats (four, five and six): Le Roux Hamman ended seventh in 49.72, Lindsay Hanekom was also seventh in 50.22 and LJ van Zyl was second in 49.22.
In a nutshell: Up and coming youngsters Hamman and Hanekom will live to fight another day as they missed out automatic qualification that went with ending in the top three of each heat.
But two-time Olympic veteran LJ van Zyl lives to fight another day with a solid showing. With wife Irvette being ruled out of the marathon due to injury, Van Zyl will be looking to fly the Van Zyl family flag on her behalf.
He goes into the semi-finals as 15th fastest qualifier. Jamaica’s Annsert Whyte leads the way with an impressive 48.37sec.
Men’s 110m hurdles, heat three: Antonio Alkana
In a nutshell: Alkana hit two of the three hurdles in his heat to finish fifth, but his 13.64 recorded sent him though as one of the fastest
qualifiers as he placed 21st overall. A total of 24 athletes went through to the next round.
MARATHON SWIMMING
Women’s 10km open water event: Michelle Weber ended 18th in the event swum off Copacabana in a time of 1hr 59min 05.0 sec.
In a nutshell: Weber came into her debut Olympics after a strong performance at the final qualifying event in Setubal, Portugal two months ago where she placed sixth in a time of 1:55.49.
On this occasion she was always slightly off that pace.
At the 2.5km, 5km and 7.5km markers she was ranked 15th, 16th and 17th respectively and ended up being 2 min 32.9sec off the pace as Netherlands swimmer Sharon van Rouwendaal splashed to gold.
Weber will be back though. At just 19 she was one of just four teenagers in the field and will only get stronger in future.
CANOEING
Women’s K1 200m: Heat Four - Bridgitte Hartley finished third in heat four with a time of 41.698 sec to progress into the semi-finals.
In a nutshell: Hartley made a point of saying on Sunday that this event is little more than a testing of the waters for her big event, the K1 500m sprint.