Far from the gold rush, but SA has already bagged three medals
IT MAY not have been the gold rush from four years ago, but finishing the first week of the Rio Olympic Games with three medals is nothing to scoff at after swimming, rowing and the rugby sevens produced the goods.
A few possible gold medal opportunities went a-begging, particularly in the pool and on the Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon.
London 2012 Olympic gold med- allist Cameron van der Burgh failed to defend his title but it was always going to be a tough task against British champion Adam Peaty, who was in a different class.
Winning the 100m breaststroke silver was worth its weight in gold as Van der Burgh rightfully beamed after winning his second Olympic medal.
It was quite the feat as history has been particularly unkind to breaststroke Olympic champions, with the majority missing the po- dium the next time around.
“I knew tonight in the warm-up that I wasn’t going to go 57 seconds, so I had to try to do the best I could,” Van der Burgh said.
“Even if I went 57.5 it wouldn’t have been good enough, you’d really have to do a spectacular time.
“The race for the silver medal was really on and I am super-stoked that I was able to push through and win that mental victory,” he said.
Le Clos was the Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde of the pool as he dazzled to win the 200m freestyle silver medal, only to be average in his 200m butterfly title defence.
Four years ago, he was the darling of the London Games when he out-touched American legend Michael Phelps, but in 2016 he will be better remembered for his performances out of the pool.
Le Clos’ Rocky impression in the call room was captured on camera where he shadow-boxed a few metres from Phelps in a suspected taunt of the American ahead of their 200m butterfly semi-final.
Phelps’s lack of a response was striking as he opted to do his talking in the swimming pool where he won his 20th Olympic gold medal with Le Clos finishing a distant fourth.
“This is what I wanted over the past two years, I just wanted to race in the final, and if I came second in my best time then c’est la vie,” Le Clos said.
“But this is not the end of my 200m ‘fly career,” he added.
South Africa’s plucky men’s cox- less pair crew of Lawrence Brittain and Shaun Keeling rowed from the deepest, darkest corner of fourth place at the 500m mark to win the silver medal.
It was a major personal triumph for Brittain, who had beaten cancer two years ago to fight his way back.
Bringing the curtain down on a superb day, the South African Sevens team claimed the country’s fourth medal in Rio, romping to a 54-14 victory over Japan to seal third place.