Best ever games for Team SA

2006-03-24 21:52

Wilhelm de Swardt

Melbourne - Irrespective of what happens on Saturday and Sunday the performances of South African athletes at the 2006 Commonwealth Games can already be described as the best ever.

With Chris Harmse winning bronze in the hammer throw and that of Lorna Trigwell in the singles of the women's bowls event, South Africa already has 32 medals (11 gold, eight silver and 13 bronze) and it will even become more.

Jackson Chauke (flyweight) and Bongani Mwelase (welterweight) will box in the respective finals of those groups on Saturday. Hardus Pienaar is one of the favourites in the men's javelin.

Other prospective medallists are Khotso Mokoena in the triple jump, Francois van Tonder's attempt to get his third medal in the pistol shooting and it is also not impossible that the SA cycling team can win a medal for the first time since 1998.

The statistics show that South Africa won 16 gold medals in 1954 in Vancouver and 13 gold medals in 1958 in Cardiff, Wales.

These performances should be seen in perspective. In Vancouver 24 countries took part (602 athletes) and in Cardiff 35 (1130 athletes).

This year 4 500 athletes from 71 countries are competing for the medals and it is now the professional era.

Proud shot put tradition

The highlight was without any doubt Roland Schoeman's performance in the swimming pool. He is the first athlete to win three gold medals (50m freestyle, 50m butterfly and 4x100m freestyle relay). He also won bronze in the 100m freestyle.

The five gold medals won in the pool is the best performance yet. In 1954, 1958 and 2002 the tally was three.

Gert le Roux, ace statistician for athletics, says Janus Robberts has continued a proud tradition of the shot put when he won gold.

"Since the first Games in 1930 South Africa has only been without an athlete in this category on the podium in three out of ten events. That was in 1950, 1958 and 1994.

"Robberts is the fifth South African to win the event, the others being Harry Hart (1930 and 1934), Louis Fouche in 1939 and Burger Lambrechts in 1998," he said.

When Harmse threw the hammer a distance of 73.81m it was the 11th medal won by a field or track athlete. The previous occasions when they won that many were 1938 and 1998.

The highest number of gold medals won at any Games was six in 1938 and five each in 1934 and 2002. So far this year the total is four.

Diane Swanton was the first woman to win gold in snap shooting, and with her brother, Byron, also winning silver in the men's division another piece of history was made. It was the first time that brother and sister won medals at the Games representing the same sport.

Babalwa Ndleneni became the first black female weightlifter to win a medal. She won bronze in the 75 kg division.

- Beeld