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SA WRAP: Heartbreak for Simbine as Sekgodiso marches on

rugby04 August 2024 20:53| © SuperSport
By:Karien Jonckheere
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He covered 100m in the fastest time of his life. But 9.82 seconds later, one hundredth of a second still stood between Akani Simbine and an Olympic medal.

Lining up in an incredible third Olympic 100m final in Paris on Sunday night, the South African star hoped this would finally be his year.

Fifth in Rio eight years ago, fourth in Tokyo five years later, Simbine knew it would take something special to get his hands on an Olympic medal. And special it was as he blazed to a new South African record. But it was still not enough.

 

After a blanket finish, it took several agonising seconds for the results to flash up on the screen in the stadium and there it was – world champion Noah Lyles had taken the gold by five thousandths of a second from Jamaican Kishane Thompson, both credited with a time of 9.79 seconds and another American, Fred Kerley, had edged his body in front to sneak the bronze by that one hundredth of a second from the South African who ran a lifetime best of 9.82 seconds. 

That time would have earned him a silver medal in both Tokyo and Rio.

The SA record at least proved to be some consolation to the 30-year-old who knew he couldn’t have done any more.

“Bitter sweet, but happy. I won't say I'm as disappointed as I was in Tokyo. But right now I'm just actually a happy man,” said a gallant Simbine afterwards.

“The next thing I could have asked for was a medal.... But that's sprinting, it's part of the game, I'm happy with the national record, happy that I was in the final, happy that I've put myself in a position to be the fourth fastest man in the world, and it's my third Olympics, third Olympics making a final and placing so well. The next thing is just a medal. But other than that, I ran a PB.”

Asked whether he would consider another Olympic campaign in four years’ time, Simbine reckoned: “There's no way that I'm leaving the sport now… I started the sport very late in my life so I feel like I can still get more out of the sport. And I'm 30 years old, I'm running the fastest I’ve ever run in my life, I've still got a drive.”

Simbine found further consolation in the prospect of a possible medal in the 4x100m relay next week, with two of his teammates showing promise in their 100m heats and semifinals.

Earlier in the evening, Benji Richardson and Shaun Maswanganyi, also competed in the 100m semifinals. 20-year-old Richardson narrowly missed out on a spot in the final, finishing third in a time of 9.97 while Maswanganyi was fifth in his semifinal in a time of 10.02. Both will return to the track on Monday for the heats of the 200m.

Meanwhile, middle distance star Prudence Sekgodiso cruised through her 800m semifinal to book a place in her first ever Olympic final.

The 22-year-old stuck with Keely Hodgkinson throughout the race and looked comfortable on her way to second spot behind the Briton in a time of 1:57.57.

“You know from the warm-up everything was just emotional. My coach didn't know what to say to me… Just go for it, just stick to our plan and here I am. I qualified with a big Q [automatic qualification],” said the elated Sekgodiso afterwards.

“I'm so excited and I can't wait for tomorrow’s final, I'm just going go rest and try to sleep.” The 800m final takes place at 9.47pm on Monday.

Earlier in the day both Rogail Joseph and Zeney Geldenhuys booked their places in the 400m hurdles semifinals by finishing in the top three in their respective heats.

Joseph secured her spot with a second-place finish in her heat, clocking a personal best time of 54.56 seconds behind American Jasmine Jones.

“I'm really excited for the semifinal,” said Joseph after the race.

“It was amazing, I can just give thanks to God. I didn't expect it… I really panicked the last 100 when I saw ‘Yoh, you’re in front’, but I'm really grateful,” added the Worcester athlete who train in Potchefstroom.

In the following heat, Geldenhuys also secured an automatic qualification spot for the semifinals with a third-place finish behind Dutch star Femke Bol and Jamaican Shiann Salmon in 54.73 seconds.

The Commonwealth Games bronze medallist said she was happy with how relaxed she felt.

“If was fine. It was actually, I must say, the first race that's a huge international race where I represent my country where I actually enjoyed it, where the fear or anxiety or stress didn’t eat me up. I actually enjoyed it,” she explained.

“My coach and I have been working on a lot of mental and relaxing stuff, so I must say that’s helping for me, so I'm just happy for that.”

The first round of the men’s 400m saw neither Lythe Pillay nor Zakithi Nene securing automatic qualification into the semifinals. They will have another chance to progress in tomorrow’s repechage round.

Pillay finished a distant seventh in his heat in 45.60 seconds and said afterwards: “I still don’t know what went wrong. It's definitely a tactical blunder on my part. I'll just go back and look at what I did wrong… see what I can fix tomorrow.”

Nene was out in front coming down the home straight in his heat but then finished fourth in a time of 45.01 seconds.

Neither of the country’s long jumpers progressed to tomorrow’s final. Jovan van Vuuren could only manage a best jump of 7.70m to finish 23rd overall while Cheswill Johnson got his jumps all wrong, recording a best distance of 4.49m to finish 31st. 

Meanwhile, over in the centre of Paris, SA cyclist Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio crossed the finish line of the women’s road race in a group that were five minutes behind race winner Kristin Faulkner of the USA. The other South African in the race, Tiffany Keep, did not finish.

Moolman-Pasio said she had tried to join one of the early breakaways but couldn’t manage. She was nevertheless thrilled with the result of finishing 33rd overall, considering she was in a hospital bed eight weeks ago.

“I can only really be proud of my effort today coming back from a T10 fracture of my vertebra eight weeks ago,” she said after the race. “It's actually just a miracle to be on the start line, to be honest, and considering all that, I think I did a really great race.”

SA golfers, Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Erik van Rooyen, wrapped up their campaigns at Le Golf National, finishing in 16th and 17th place respectively. Bezuidenhout shot a final round 69 and Van Rooyen a 70 as the USA’s Scottie Scheffler claimed the gold medal.

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