WEDNESDAY, 4.30PM:
SOUTH African tennis players are doing well abroad, with Jeff Coetzee and Jason Weir-Smith continuing their good run in Cuba, and Chris Haggard making the final of an ITF Futures tournament in Eastbourne, England.
Coetzee and Weir-Smith won the doubles final in the second leg of the ITF Cuba-Mexico Satellite in Havana on Tuesday. The third-seeded South Africans defeated Americans Darren Otten and Charlie Singer, who were seeded fourth, 6-3 6-4.
As a result, Coetzee and Weir-Smith go into this week’s third leg in Villahermosa, Mexico, as circuit leaders and top seeds.
Haggard reached the final in Eastbourne, losing 6-3 6-2 to Swede Kalle Flygt, who also went on to win the doubles.
SPORT BRIEFS
SA BOXER TOASTED
MZUKISI OLIPHANT, a little-known Eastern Cape boxer, was given a standing ovation by the dinner-jacketed audience after his bout at the St Andrews Sporting Club against unbeaten Richard Evatt on Tuesday night. Oliphant was toasted as he returned to his dressing room after going toe to toe with Evatt for a seven-round slugfest, before sheer exhaustion and a troublesome gumguard forced him to retire to his stool.
SURF’S UP AT VICTORIA BAY
VICTORIA Bay on the southern Cape coast will be the venue for the Junior Africa Series surfing event to be held from on February 28 and March 1. Some of South Africa’s most promising junior surfers will be competing in the event, which is one of five in the run-up to the grand finals, the Billabong Pro Junior Championships, which are scheduled to be held at Super Tubes in Jeffreys Bay early in July.
SA WEIGHTLIFTERS IMPRESS
SOUTH Africa’s top weightlifters performed impressively at the Tofalos Kakousis invitation tournament in Greece, where they competed against top European lifters. Willem Phillips, in the 56kg bodyweight division, took a silver medal and broke a South African record with a clean and jerk of 110kg and a 87,5kg snatch, for a total of 197,5kg. Henk Booysen, competing in the 105kg bodyweight division, came head to head with Olympic gold medallist Akiakide Kakiasvilis of Greece. The South African grabbed three South African records of 150kg in the snatch and 175kg in the clean and jerk for a personal best total of 325kg, only 25kg short of Kakiasvilis’ winning total of 350kg.
SUPER-12 FIXTURES AND BETTING
FIXTURES:
Friday
Otago v Queensland, Dunedin; Stormers v Hurricanes, Cape Town.
Saturday
Bulls v Cats, Pretoria; Sharks v Auckland, Durban; Waikato v Canterbury, Albany.
Sunday
New South Wales v ACT, Sydney.
Betting:
22-10 Auckland (to reach semifinals 1-4); 5-1 Golden Cats (4-10); 6-1 Coastal Sharks (11-20); 10-1 Wellington Hurricanes (12-10) and Western Stormers (15-10); 12-1 Canterbury Crusaders (8-10) and Queensland (15-10); 14-1 Australian Capital Territories (15-10); 15-1 New South Wales (3-1) and Waikato Chiefs (4-1); 25-1 Northern Bulls (5-1); 50-1 Otago Highlanders (7-1)