Athens - A golden goal two-and-a-half minutes into extra time gave South Africa's women's hockey team a chance of securing a ninth-place finish in the Olympic tournament on Thursday.
First blood in the classification match went to Spain in the 22nd minute when Spain's Rocio Ybarra scored from a penalty corner, but Pietie Coetzee equalised six minutes later and Pholo Tsoanelo put South Africa ahead with an accurate shot just before half-time.
It looked as though the match would go in South Africa's favour when Jenny Wilson edged the score to 3-1 in the 46th minute, but two quick goals from the Spaniards in the 48th and 59th minutes brought the scores level at 3-3.
It was left to Jenny Wilson to score the decisive golden goal from a penalty corner just after the start of extra-time.
Triathlete Conrad Stoltz failed to finish Thursday's men's triathlon when he broke his saddle during the bike section of the 1.5km swim, 40km cycle and 10km run course.
Having finished the swim in last position, in a disappointing 19 minutes 35 seconds, Stoltz made up 30 seconds of the two-minute deficit on the first of five hilly cycle laps, before disaster struck.
As he changed gear to tackle the steep hill, the chain slipped to the inside, locking and causing him to come down hard on the saddle which broke under the impact.
The cycle was expected to be Stoltz's strongest leg, but instead he was faced with a slow return to the finish venue.
Canoeist Alan van Coller failed to make it through to the final when he could only manage a fourth position in the third semi-final of the 500m K1 canoe event.
After a good start that saw him go through the 250m buoy in 48.28 seconds, he surrendered his qualifying third position to Italy's Andrea Facchin.
Diver Jenna Dreyer continued with some confident diving in the 3m Springboard event, but failed to make the top 12 required for the final.
The 18 year-old consistently scored in the seven-point range in all four of Thursday's dives to amass a total of 464.43 points over the two days competition. Semi-finalist Dreyer finished 17th overall in her first Olympic games.
