Wayne Snyman delivered the best performance of the South African team, finishing seventh in the men's 20km race at the World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships in Muscat, Oman on Saturday.
Snyman, who won the SA 35km title earlier this year, dropped back down to his specialist distance, completing the 20km race in 1:25:33 as the 36-year-old athlete produced one of the best championship results of his career to close out the two-day showpiece.
His fellow South Africans struggled, however, with Tumisang Pule finishing 49th in 1:40:50 and Sizwe Ndebele ending 52nd in 1:44:07, as the national squad settled for ninth place in the team competition.
Toshikazu Yamanishi of Japan won the men's 20km race, with Ecuador securing the team title.
There were no SA athletes in the 35km races, but the squad had been represented across the board in all three races on Friday's opening day.
Marissa Swanepoel finished 41st in the women's 20km race in 1:58:23, with Zhenxia Ma of China winning gold in 1:30:22.
Janise Nell was 26th in the U20 women's 10km walk in 54:01, which was won by China's Yunyan Jiang in 47:48, while Christiaan Bester finished 29th in the U-20 men's 10km race in 55:43, with Hongren Wang winning another gold for China in 44:06.
“We welcome our athletes back today having given their best against the best in the world,” said the James Moloi, the President of Athletics South Africa. “They had a safe trip from Oman and that matters a lot since travel is not fully opened by some countries due to the ongoing prevalence of Covid-19 around the world.
“We must admit though that we need to improve our participation and performance in the Race Walk. We need to revisit our approach to event which has a great opportunity to bring us medal outcomes.”