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SA WRAP: Van Dyk spears surprise silver for Team SA

olympics10 August 2024 20:56| © SuperSport
By:Karien Jonckheere
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Jo-Ané van Dyk made sure Team South Africa will leave Paris with one more silver medal in the bag.

Heading into the javelin final on the last night of athletics at the Stade de France on Saturday, Van Dyk was ranked 11th in the world this year.

That was only after throwing a personal best of 64.22m in the qualifying round on Wednesday.

Little did the 26-year-old know that her third-round effort of 63.93m on Saturday would be enough to secure her the silver medal.

A distance of under 64m has never won an Olympic medal since the latest specifications were introduced in 1999.

But on Saturday it was enough, and that’s all that mattered.

Japanese world champion Haruka Kitaguchi produced the best two throws of the night, 65.80m in the first round and 64.73m in the fifth to claim the gold medal while Czechia's Nikola Ogrodnikova claimed bronze with a third-round effort of 63.68m.

This was a second podium finish in eight years for renowned Potchefstroom-based coach Terseus Liebenberg, who also guided Sunette Viljoen to Olympic silver in Rio in 2016.

“It’s just unbelievable, it’s just crazy and I’m just so grateful,” said an elated Van Dyk afterwards.

“Because of this fast track and everything I thought the distances would be much higher but like I always say, on the day literally anything can happen, it’s anyone’s game.

“I feel like this Olympics has been an Olympics for the underdogs so I’m very happy for that.”

Asked whether she thought her 63.93m effort would earn her a medal, Van Dyk reckoned: “I am a little surprised. I was thinking that there's going to be some girls coming through, throwing further. Definitely because most of them already threw much further in qualifying even, but it’s different out there on the field.”

Van Dyk’s silver brings Team SA’s medal haul in Paris to six – one gold, three silvers and two bronzes with one day of competition remaining.

SA BREAK NATIONAL RECORD IN RELAY

Meanwhile, the SA men’s 4x400m relay team lined up for their final without 400m world record holder Wayde van Niekerk in the mix. 

The Rio gold medallist has not been in the best of form and the South Africans decided to rather go with the quartet of Gardeo Isaacs, Zakithi Nene, Lythe Pillay and Antonie Nortje.

While they were never in medal contention, eventually finishing in fifth spot, they did break the South African record, setting a new mark of 2:58.12.

Out in front, the USA just managed to hold off Botswana for the gold medal in 2:54.43.

After 200m gold medallist Letsile Tebogo ran a storming anchor leg, Botswana took the silver in an African record of 2:54.53 with Great Britain claiming the bronze in 2:55.83.

RAATS FINISHES 11TH IN HIGH JUMP

Brian Raats finished 11th in his first Olympic high jump final after clearing 2.17m on his first attempt but then failing at 2.22m.

GELANT, MOKOKA FLY SA FLAG IN MEN'S MARATHON

Earlier in the day, Elroy Gelant and Stephen Mokoka flew the South African flag in the men’s marathon which was won by Ethiopia’s Tamirat Tola in an Olympic record of 2:06.26.

Bashir Abdi of Belgium took the silver and Kenya’s Benson Kipruto the bronze.

Gelant remained with the main chasing group for much of the beginning of the race, before things broke up on one of the brutal hills around the 28km mark.

He nevertheless did exceptionally well to finish 11th in a time of 2:09.07 with Mokoka finishing 27th in 2:10.59.

Gelant said he had spent three hours reviewing the hilly course, which passed many iconic Paris landmarks, the day before the race which was a great help.

“Mentally that helped me a lot,” he said.

“There's still a lot of work to be done. The move was made on that last killer hill and I think with better preparation in terms of a more professional approach, I think we could have done better,” added the 37-year-old, who juggles his running career with a fulltime job as an industrial psychology lecturer at North-West University.

“I think if we can slot in a few training camps of three to four months, high altitude, those type of things, that will lead to better performances.

“But it's still a solid performance if you look at the big guns like [Kenenisa] Bekele and [Eliud] Kipchoge, they’re behind us, so a positive run, a confidence booster going to world champs next year… I'm happy with the performance today.”

BUHAI JOINT 13TH AT LE GOLF NATIONAL

Over at Le Golf National, Ashleigh Buhai shot a final-round two-under par 70, to finish in joint 13th place on -3 for the tournament, seven shots off gold medallist Lydia Ko of New Zealand, who claimed the win by two strokes over Germany’s Esther Henseleit with China’s Xiyu Lin taking bronze.

South Africa’s other golfer, Paula Reto, finished joint 44th after a final round of 72 – her best of the tournament.

“I’m very happy with how I played today,” said Buhai. “I struck the ball great, obviously a few more putts could have dropped, I could have got myself close, but overall it's been a fantastic week.

“I’m so proud to have represented South Africa. This tournament’s been amazing, the crowds have been amazing, one of the best experiences of my life,” added the 2022 British Open champion.

DE LANGE WRESTLES INTO REPECHAGE ROUND

Meanwhile, Steyn de Lange waited a long time to make his Olympic debut, finally in action on the wrestling mat in the 97kg category on the penultimate day of the Games.

It was not a winning start, however, with the US-based wrestler going down 12-2 to Givi Matcharashvili.

But because the Georgian went on to reach the final, De Lange will get to contest a repechage round on the final day of the Games tomorrow.

“I know I could have done a lot better, a lot of mistakes made,” he said afterwards.

“This is still very fresh, I just need some time to process exactly what happened and go through it.

“I’m wrapping my head around it right now, I need to analyse to be able to win this.”

LOVEMORE 9TH OVERALL IN MEN'S K1

Hamish Lovemore was the only South African paddler in action on Saturday, competing in the men’s K1 1000m semifinals.

He finished eighth in that race in 3:33.89 to miss out on the A final, but then won the B final in 3:27.94 – a time that would have seen him finishing fourth in the A final.

Over at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome, track cyclist Jean Spies finished sixth in his first-round Keirin heat to miss out on the quarterfinals. 

He was then fifth in the repechage to bring his Olympic campaign to an end.

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