A perfect 1
Chad backs Caster for gold and…
CHAD le Clos is backing Caster Semenya to collect South Africa’s second gold medal in the 800m tomorrow morning and give Team South Africa their best medal count in an Olympic Games.
“Caster is going to win. I will be watching her, and then South Africa will have the 10 medals we aimed for,” said Le Clos from the sidelines of the Lahee Park pool in Pinetown where he resumed training yesterday, just hours after arriving in Durban from Rio.
Meanwhile, international reports suggest that security has been beefed up around Semenya prior to her race. News outlets are reporting that Olympics officials are concerned about her welfare and are fearful fans of rival runners will get out of control.
Le Clos, who won two silver medals to make him South Africa’s most successful Olympian, said he enjoyed watching and cheering on his fellow South Africans.
“I was in the audience when Wayde (van Niekerk) ran, and it was so fantastic to see him win, he deserves it. We have been friends for some time, and I know he deserves the success. Definitely with winning gold, his life is going to change. Now we are all cheering for Caster to make the country proud again, and round off the medal tally,” he said.
With one gold medal, six silver and two bronze from Rio, the 2016 Olympics team is easily South Africa’s best at a Games since readmission to the world’s biggest sporting jamboree in 1992. If Le Clos is correct and Semenya picks up South Africa’s second gold, the team will equal South Africa’s best medal haul ever – 10 each from Antwerp in 1920 and Helsinki in 1952.
The hero of the South African team is new 400m world record holder, Van Niekerk, whose stunning 43.03 will go down as one of the highlights of the Olympics, and not just for South Africans.
The record he broke – 43.18 set by Michael Johnson in 1999 – was one of those that looked set to stand for a few more years. But the modest Van Niekerk is not somebody who holds back from greatness.
The world champion, who is the first person ever to run under 10 seconds for the 100m, 20 seconds for 200m and 44 for 400m, beat a field from the outside lane to claim his first Olympic medal. So impressive was his run that “The Greatest” Usain Bolt took time to seek out Van Niekerk in the stands to congratulate him.
While Van Niekerk and his 74-year-old coach “Tannie” Ans Botha were celebrating on the track, South Africa’s golden boy of London 2012, Durban’s Le Clos, was quietly also making history in the swimming pool.
Van Niekerk’s heroics may have overshadowed Le Clos who struggled to recapture the glory days of London. The gold and silver he won in 2012, combined with his two silver medals from Rio, put him one ahead of four other athletes who have earned three medals: Swimmers Penny Heyns (1996 and 2000) and Roland Schoeman (2004), athlete Bevil Rudd (1920) and tennis player Charles Winslow (1912 and 1920).
While Le Clos and Van Niekerk were expected to add to the tally, the biggest surprise was triathlete Henri Schoeman, 24. The Durbanite overcame a chest infection to shock the world when he earned bronze and his first podium visit at a top-level international event.
Compatriot Richard Murray was expected to be a serious medal challenger and he almost lived up to his billing with the fastest run of the event which allowed him to blitz through the field in to fourth, but left himself too much to do after struggling in the swimming leg.
Schoeman had the swim of his life and sat in the lead group for the cycle leg and then produced a controlled run to earn bronze, seven seconds ahead of Murray.
The team of the event is the rowers, closely followed by the the sevens rugby squad – despite their disappointment at “only” getting a bronze after their surprise loss to Great Britain in the semi-finals.
Rowers Shaun Keeling and Lawrence Brittain won a silver in the men’s pair, but it was a full house of finals with every crew earning a place in the race for gold. The most inspirational story from a South African was of Luvo Manyonga whose silver medal for long jump came with a back story about his remarkable fight to overcome crystal meth addiction.
In the remaining events, Semenya in the 800m is clearly the best chance of a medal, but Elroy Gelant, who also runs early tomorrow morning in the 5 000m, has an outside chance. Tomorrow afternoon, the KZN duo of Alan Hatherly and James Reid in the men’s mountain bike event, and the marathon trio of Lusapho April, Lungile Gongqa and Sibusiso Nzima are unlikely to add to South Africa’s medal tally.