Mixed bag for SA on day one
2004-08-14 22:41
Athens - The first day of the Olympics Games produced some mixed results for the South African contingent on Saturday.
The most positive South African result on Saturday came from Donovan Cech and Ramon di Clemente when they secured their place in Wednesday's semifinal of the men's 2000m Rowing Pairs.
South Africa's other success came in the last event of the day when Gershon Rorich and Colin Pocock beat Greece's Pavlos Beligratis and Athanasios Michalopoulos two sets to one.
But the news was not so good for Terrence Parkin, who failed to go through from heat five of the 100m breaststroke despite winning his heat.
The South African women's hockey team went down 1-6 to the Netherlands, Chris Dednam and Antoinette Uys went out of the badminton mixed double competition, Michelle Edwards lost her women's single match to India's Aparna Popat 11-6 11-3 and boxer Khota Motau lost a points decision in the middleweight 75kg division
Ryan Cox, after an aggressive race up front, was the only survivor among South Africa's team of three in a thrilling 224km Olympic Games road race through the city streets of Athens that was won by Paolo Bettini of Italy.
Saturday's women's 4 x 100 relay ensured that one of the focal points of the Sunday action will be the men's edition of the same event. South Africans Darian Townsend and Ryk Neethling withdrew from the individual men's 200m freestyle, which is scheduled for less than two hours before the relay prelims, preferring to be in peak form to compete for the 4x100m relay.
The quartet of Roland Schoeman, Neethling, Townsend, and Lyndon Ferns need to post one of the fastest eight times in the preliminary rounds as progression is based on time rather than position in the heats.
Gerhard Zandberg gets his first outing of the games in fifth heat of the 100m backstroke. Zandberg has a chance of progressing but is unfortunate to have been drawn in lane one, which tends to deliver slower times.
- SAPA