Golden moment
GAMES: NTUTU AND LANGENHOVEN SECURE MEMORABLE ONE-TW0 IN 100M
Ndodomzi Jonathan Ntutu jumps for joy to receive his gold medal in the men’s T12 100m during the evening session of athletics on day eight of the 2018 Commonwealth Games at Carrara Stadium in Gold Coast, Australia, yesterday. SA’s Hilton Langenhoven, left, grabbed silver.
Setback for South African medal hopes as injured Munyai pulls out of 4x100 relay.
Wesley Botton
Sprinters Jonathan Ntutu and Hilton Langenhoven produced a one-two finish at the Commonwealth Games yesterday, stealing the show from their able-bodied compatriots as South Africa pocketed another six medals on the eighth day of competition at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.
Ntutu left the four-man field trailing as he scorched to victory in 11.02 seconds in the T12 men’s 100m final for visually impaired athletes.
Langenhoven grabbed the silver medal in 11.27 as the duo emulated the sprint double achieved by compatriots Akani Simbine and Henricho Bruintjies earlier in the week.
“Nothing can describe what I’m feeling at the moment,” Ntutu said. “I’m sure it will hit me even harder when I get home.”
Earlier on the track, Wenda Nel was rewarded for her consistency in recent years with a bronze medal in the women’s 400m hurdles final, clocking 54.96.
In the men’s 200m final, inform SA record holder Clarence Munyai finished fourth in 20.58.
Munyai, who pulled out of the 4x100m relay this weekend after picking up a hamstring niggle, initially crossed the line in fifth place. Winner Zharnel Hughes was disqualified for impeding an opponent, however, and the South African was bumped up to fourth position.
In the women’s 800m heats, Caster Semenya coasted to an easy win in 1:59.26, and she was set to enter today’s final as the firm favourite.
Elsewhere, freestyle wrestler Hanru Botha did well to reach the gold medal battle in the 74kg freestyle division.
He went down to former world champion Kumar Sushil of India, who secured a convincing 10-0 victory, but Botha did enough to earn the silver medal.
Compatriot Jan Combrinck made it to the bronze medal playoff in the 57kg category, but he lost to Ebikewenimo Welson of Nigeria.
On the cross country course, cyclist Alan Hatherly produced a gutsy ride to snatch bronze in the men’s contest. Having recovered from a broken arm in the build-up to the Games, Hatherly finished third in 1:17:56.
On the bowls green, the B6/ B7/B8 open triples team of Christopher Patton, Tobias Botha and Willem Viljoen bagged a 16-13 victory over England in the play-offs, also filling the bottom step of the podium.
The SA team were lying fifth in the standings with a total of 32 medals including 11 gold.
Wesley Botton
National distance running icon Zola Budd says Caster Semenya’s record-breaking form can only be good for the sport of athletics, after Semenya shattered one of Budd’s last two remaining SA marks.
Semenya, who already held the national 800m (1:55.16) and 1 000m (2:35.43) records which had previously been set by Zelda Pretorius and Ilze Wicksell, added the 1 500m mark on Tuesday when she won gold at the Commonwealth Games.
She kicked hard on the last lap, storming home in 4:00.71 to smash the record of 4:01.81 which had been clocked by a 17-year-old Budd in Port Elizabeth in March 1984.
“Records are there to be broken and that is what improves our sport,” Budd, a former 5 000m world record holder, said in a brief statement from her home in the United States yesterday.
With her 1 500m mark having being eclipsed, Budd retained one more SA record in the mile event, a distance over which Semenya had never competed at elite level, after clocking 4:23.38 in PE in March 1981.
While Budd set career bests of 3:59.96 over the 1 500m distance and 4:17.57 in the mile, both performances were achieved after she switched allegiance by taking up British citizenship.
Semenya was set to compete again at the Gold Coast Games today, turning out in the 800m final in search of a middle-distance double.