All the latest Commonwealth Games action, medals
A GOLDEN glow greeted the South African team at the 2018 Commonwealth Games with Henri Schoeman winning the first medal at the quadrennial showpiece yesterday morning.
The euphoria of Schoeman’s victory deflated slightly as the day progressed, with the results not quite going the way of the South African contingent with the exception of a few swimmers.
The men’s and women’s hockey teams tasted defeat in their respective matches while the country’s bowlers did not have much luck either.
Golden boy Chad le Clos led the way in the swimming pool when he qualified for what he hopes would be the first of many finals at the Games.
Le Clos won his 50m butterfly semi-final in a time of 23.53 seconds, with training partner Ryan Coetzee finishing behind him to book his place in a final at his maiden Games. Coetzee won his heat earlier in the day before clocking a new personal best of 23.79 to march into today’s final.
The current queen of South African swimming, Tatjana Schoenmaker, will also stand a chance of challenging for a medal at her first Commonwealth Games after making it into the 50m breaststroke final.
While it was widely reported that Schoenmaker had set a new African record in her heat when she clocked 30.92, it did not quite get close to Penny Heyns’ 30.83 set back in 1999.
It was nevertheless fast enough to qualify her for the semi-final where she posted a time of 31.01 for a chance at a medal.
The Proteas women’s hockey side went down 2-0 against England after they conceded goals in the first two periods of the match.
National coach Sheldon Rostron said there were some things they could change up for the rest of the Games and hopefully get their campaign back on track.
“In general, I’m pretty happy with the play and the quality, and from the second quarter we definitely put in a really good performance,” Rostron said.
“We just gave away too much space and too many short corners, so we are not happy in that department.”
The men’s side went down 4-2 to Scotland after conceding three goals within the first 15 minutes before bouncing back with two of their own.
“The shock of the first chukka to go three down and then in the second period to get into our stride, it took us 15 minutes to start playing some hockey,” said men’s coach Mark Hopkins.
“It is a young group of hockey players coming together and it is their first experience, so we will go from strength to strength.”
The bowlers had a mixed bag of results on the greens with three victories and two draws with Glasgow gold medallist Colleen Piketh opening her campaign in the singles with a win.
In the women’s 4000m team pursuit the track cycling quartet of Ilze Bole, Charlene du Preez, Adelia Neethling and Elfriede Wolfaardt ended sixth of seven teams in qualifying. They broke the SA record with a time of 4:51.224, improving on the previous mark of 5:22:417.
The men’s side of Steve van Heerden, David Maree, Nolan Hoffman and Gert Fouche also set a new national record. They finished sixth of eight teams, clocking 4:11.711 in taking sevens seconds off the previous record.