The first day of the Olympics Games produced some mixed results for the South African contingent on Saturday.
The most positive South African result on Saturday came from Donovan Cech and Ramon di Clemente when they secured their place in Wednesday’s semifinal of the men’s 2 000m Rowing Pairs.
South Africa’s other success came in the last event of the day when Gershon Rorich and Colin Pocock beat Greece’s Pavlos Beligratis and Athanasios Michalopoulos two sets to one.
But the news was not so good for Terrence Parkin, who failed to go through from heat five of the 100m breaststroke despite winning his heat.
The South African women’s hockey team went down 1-6 to the Netherlands, Chris Dednam and Antoinette Uys went out of the badminton mixed double competition, Michelle Edwards lost her women’s single match to India’s Aparna Popat 11-6 11-3 and boxer Khota Motau lost a points decision in the middleweight 75kg division
Ryan Cox, after an aggressive race up front, was the only survivor among South Africa’s team of three in a thrilling 224km Olympic Games road race through the city streets of Athens that was won by Paolo Bettini of Italy.
The tough little rider who started his cycling career in Cape Town, finished in the second trailing bunch after first Robbie Hunter, then Tiaan Kannemeyer succumbed to the intense heat and furious racing that took the pack of 144 up the 150-metre climb to Licavitos 17 times and failed to finish.
Taking the lead from the start, Cech and Di Clemente kept close enough to the Croatians to gain the slipstream advantage of the adjacent lane. At the 1 000m mark the crews were separated by 0,44 seconds, but over five seconds clear of US and Czechoslovakia.
In the final 500m Cech and Di Clemente turned on the power to finish in 6:57:06 over four seconds ahead of Croatia, giving them the third fastest time of the day behind New Zealand and Australia.
Rorich and Pocock had to deal with significantly faster serves of the Greek duo but that resulted in a higher fault rate, which gave the South Africans additional opportunities. The speed of service must be a concern as the fastest recorded was 83kph by Beligratis, compared with 47kph and 55kph by Rorich and Pocock respectively.
The South Africans won the first set 21-16 but lost the second 24-26 before securing the match with a 15-10 third set. Despite starting at 9pm the temperature was still a claustrophobic 29 degrees with 61% humidity.
They will now face Argentina on Monday and Portugal on Wednesday.
Behind at the halfway mark, Parkin pulled through to touch the wall in 1:03:05.
”I am pleased with this performance as a build up to the 200m breast stroke which is Terrence’s specialist event, but the guys are setting fast times out there,” said coach Graham Hill.
Despite early concerns this is clearly a fast pool and Parkin will need to be sharper for Tuesday’s event if he is to repeat his silver medal of Sydney.
Saturday’s women’s 4 x 100 relay ensure that one of the focal points of the Sunday action will be the men’s edition of the same event. South Africans Darian Townsend and Ryk Neethling withdrew from the individual men’s 200m freestyle, which is scheduled for less than two hours before the relay prelims, preferring to be in peak form to compete for the 4x100m relay.
The quartet of Roland Schoeman, Neethling, Townsend, and Lyndon Ferns need to post one of the fastest eight times in the preliminary rounds as progression is based on time rather than position in the heats.
Gerhard Zandberg gets his first outing of the games in fifth heat of the 100m backstroke. Zandberg has a chance of progressing but is unfortunate to have been drawn in lane one, which tends to deliver slower times.
Emotions were at the other end of the scale at the Hellinico stadium where the women’s hockey team were defeated by The Netherlands.
Captain Mijntje Donners put Netherlands ahead in the sixth minute with Jenny Wilson equalising one minute later. Netherlands then took control, putting four more into the net past Caroline Birt in the first half.
South Africa regained some form in the second half that delivered one score each. This results makes Monday’s match against Australia even more important if they are to progress from a pool that includes Korea and Germany.
Edwards may have lost her badminton singles match by said it had been an incredible experience. ”Just getting here alone is amazing; although I am disappointed I didn’t get more points off her.
”Three years ago SA Badminton didn’t think I would make it to the Olympics. The fact that I qualified is a big achievement for us, but we need to compete at people like this more often” said Edwards, who will now combine with Chantal Botes for Monday’s first round doubles competition against the seventh seeded Danish pair of Ann-lou Joergensen and Rikke Olsen.
Dednam will compete in Sunday’s singles competition where he faces Thailand’s Boonsak Ponsana. If he gets through that he can expect to come up against fifth seed Hyun Lee of Korea.
Also set for badminton action on Sunday is the doubles pairing of Stuart Carson and Dorian James.
Ukraine boxer Oleg Mashkin beat Motau in the boxing ring. Going into the third round Motau lead 19-15, but the Ukrainian came back at him to finish 25-22.
”I am disappointed and wanted to do better for South Africa, and felt I had worked hard in the first two rounds,” said Khota. – Sapa