Akani Simbine finally has his Olympic medal.
He made absolutely sure of that when the baton was safely delivered into his hand by third-leg runner Bradley Nkoana in the 4x100m relay on Friday night.
The SA team were then lying in fifth position. But Simbine, spurred on by the disappointment of two fourths and one fifth-place finish in individual Olympic 100m finals spanning the last eight years, blazed down the home straight, overtaking France, Italy and Japan to finish in second place behind gold medallists Canada.
Every team in the Men's 4x100m relay ran a season's best but South Africa went one better and set a new national record 🇿🇦🙌#Paris2024 #CloserToYourChampions pic.twitter.com/NQeXf9a4Tc
— SuperSport 🏆 (@SuperSportTV) August 9, 2024
The silver was theirs, the African record time of 37.57 seconds almost of little consequence as the Olympic podium had finally been reached. Plenty of credit must also go to school student Bayanda Walaza, Shaun Maswanganyi and Nkoana, who held their own against some of the biggest names in global sprinting, especially when the pressure was on to deliver for their anchor-leg runner.
🇿🇦 Bayanda Walaza
— SuperSport 🏆 (@SuperSportTV) August 9, 2024
🇿🇦 Bradley Nkoana
🇿🇦 Shaun Maswanganyi
🇿🇦 Akani Simbine
Four men that will go down in South African sporting history 🏃#Paris2024 #CloserToYourChampions pic.twitter.com/iG8axhXZDH
This was a first-ever Olympic 4x100m relay medal for a South African team and a first Olympic relay medal of any kind on the track since an SA quartet took 4x400m silver 104 years ago in Antwerp.
“This is not just for me, but for everybody. I'm just super happy, man,” said Simbine afterwards.
“I'm really, really, really happy. I might not always show it but people that know me know that I'm actually really happy right now. I think the rest of the emotions will come to me when I get into my own space… Happy and grateful to these kids, these guys for running with me and pushing us to this medal.
“I think the whole thing for us, the whole tactic for us was to make sure they get it to me close enough to whoever is first. Because then I will be able to run it down or do something to get us in the medals. And I think I did,” added Simbine who wasn’t aware he’d overtaken three athletes down the home straight.
'TRULY SCARY'
Speaking about taking to the wet track to run the opening leg in his first Olympic final, 18-year-old Walaza explained: “I'll say it was truly scary, especially when they were calling us to go in.
“But then I had to manage it to be strong and be like, let me just do this. I usually do this all the time. So I just went out with it. When I got in the blocks I was like, you know what? Whatever happens, happens and gone, the fear was out.”
As for watching the race unfold from a distance after he’d safely handed over the baton to Maswanganyi, Walaza added: “It was something I'll never forget, I don't want to lie… It was seriously perfect.”
Earlier in the day, the SA 4x400m relay team of Gardeo Isaacs, Zakithi Nene, Antonie Nortje and Lythe Pillay were put through the wringer after thinking their hopes of contesting for an Olympic medal were dashed in the heats.
Third-leg runner Nortje fell to the track after what Pillay described as an “aggressive changeover”, and while he immediately returned to his feet and kept running, the team finished last in a time of 3:03.19.
After an appeal, it was determined that a Nigerian athlete had impeded Nortje and the South Africans advanced to the final which will be contested by nine teams while Nigeria were disqualified.
SUCCESSFUL APPEAL AFTER OBSTRUCTION
Explaining the process, Team SA athletics manager Jean Verster said: “We were obstructed, actually twice, just before the handover and just after the handover, somebody cut in front of Nortje… feet clashed and he went down hard, so we appealed that and they reinstated us.”
Nortje was always expected to be replaced by 400m world record holder Wayde van Niekerk in tomorrow night’s final, although Van Niekerk has not been in the best form at these Games.
Either way, anchor leg runner Pillay emphasised the closeness of the team. “We run together, we die together. Win or lose one thing that remains is that we still stay consistent, we still stay together,” he said of the team that raced to a silver medal at the World Relays behind Botswana earlier this year.
Edmund du Plessis led for much of his 800m semifinal but eventually finished fourth in 1:45.34.
“I'm a bit disappointed in the race,” he said afterwards. “I wanted to get to the final and I really thought I might make it.
NICE FEELING TO KNOW YOU CAN COMPETE WITH THE BEST
“I mean these are the people you watch on TV, people you grew up with watching them race, like [world champion Marco] Arop and the Kenyans, and even now that French guy [Gabriel Tual]… these are some of the fastest racers in the history of the 800 and being able to race with them and come to a dip at the line and missing out on the final with like 0.2 of a second, it's also a nice feeling because you realise you can run with these guys.
“If I get into Diamond Leagues or world leagues with these people in the future I'm not going to stand back,” added the fourth-year medical student.
Marione Fourie also didn’t make it through her 100m hurdles semifinal. The national record-holder finished sixth in 13.01 seconds – some way off the 12.49 time she ran a month ago in the Netherlands to break her own national record.
Just across the road at the Aquatics Centre, Julia Vincent raised hopes of another medal for Team SA when she was lying third after the third of five rounds in the 3m springboard diving final.
But two disappointing dives after that saw her slipping down to 11th place. Vincent is the first ever South African to reach an Olympic diving final, having also contested three World Championships finals and remains a trailblazer for the sport in South Africa.
'LOTS OF ADRENALINE'
“I had no idea where I was after my third round until I just found out now,” she said afterwards.
“I wasn't even really watching results, but I knew that I was doing OK. I had a lot of adrenaline and that’s sometimes hard to contain. It is sports, it's how it goes, but I still feel proud, it's just obviously it's tough because it's not what I was hoping for.”
“I did want it to go better, but I feel proud and I hope that one little girl can feel like maybe I can do something like this one day, it doesn't matter where I'm from.
“I hope that that's inspired at least one little person that has big dreams. But I do feel proud… it's just a bittersweet ending,” she added having said this would be her last competition before retiring.
It was a tough day for Ashleigh Buhai at Le Golf National. The 2022 British Open champion shot a third-round 74 to finish the day in joint 17th place, eight shots off the leaders. Paula Reto’s round of 76 meant she was joint 49th with one round to play.
Speaking afterwards, Buhai, who was lying second after the opening round, said: “I still felt I executed the shots that I needed to well, just didn’t manage to hit it close enough to offset the bogies that I made.
As for her plans for the fourth round, Buhai reckoned: “I just keep doing what I'm doing. I feel my game is in a good place. I didn't play that badly today, I probably made three bad swings and the rest was just very steady.
“I have to just try and maybe play a little more aggressive tomorrow when I can, but trust the process and what I'm doing and don't really think about the outcome and hopefully it'll all take care of itself.”
Over at the Vaires-sur-Marne canoeing course, the SA team of Hamish Lovemore and Andy Birkett finished sixth in their K2500m semifinal in 1:29.70, so not making it through to the A final. A few hours later in the B final, the duo reached the finish fourth in a time of 1:31.79. Lovemore will be back in action tomorrow in the K1 1000m semifinals and finals.