Grant Shimmin olympics The season of clutching at straws is almost over and my number in the press medal pool looks unlikely to come up. I went for 10 gongs, including two golds (Penny Heyns and Llewellyn Herbert), so my chances are somewhere between slim and non-existent. That said, with just the last weekend of the Games to run, there are still a handful of straws to be clutched at. Given a timeous confluence of the factors, South Africa could still exceed the handful gained in Atlanta, though the three golds won there appear untouchable. The fact is, though, that this could be the weekend South Africa’s sporting sisters really do it for themselves and the country. On Saturday, Hestrie Cloete in the high jump and the veteran Elana Meyer in the 10 000m are involved in finals and a podium position from one of the pair is not out of the question. However, despite unprecedented success in short-distance road races, it would be irresponsible to see Meyer now as we saw at the Barcelona Games eight years ago, when she was clearly one of the world’s dominant middle- distance runners. Since then, her focus has been on the road. Cloete’s case is entirely different. She was, last year, the top high jumper in the world, clearing 2,04m in Monaco. However, when it came to the world championships in Seville, she wasn’t even able to reach the final. On Thursday morning she returned to the form of the 1997 worlds in Athens, flying over heights, from 1,80m to 1,94m, without missing once. In Athens she was unable to replicate that form in the final. But she’s three years older and a personal best would surely mean gold. On Sunday, Ruth Nortje will bid for a medal in the women’s 500m K1 event, but she may have pulled off her biggest triumph simply in reaching the final.
A few men may still produce something special, too. On Friday night, there’s the pole vault final, featuring Okkert Brits, and the South African team will be bidding to reach Saturday’s 4x400m final. And on Sunday Josia Thugwane, Hendrick Ramaala and Johannes Maremane tackle the marathon. For Thugwane’s sake, as he runs for the memory of his late manager, Jacques Malan, hope for a stinker of an afternoon with unbearable humidity. The little man has run his best races in tough conditions and maybe, just maybe, he’ll do it again.