Roland Schoeman added bronze to his gold and silver in the swimming to keep South Africa’s medal tally afloat, but world high-jump champion Jacques Freitag sunk out of contention at the Athens Olympics on Friday night.
Schoeman may have missed becoming South Africa’s swimming sprint king of the world by 0,15 seconds, but he sure can walk tall after claiming the distinction of the first to win three medals at an Olympic Games when he added bronze to his gold and silver at the Aquatic Centre in Athens on Friday night.
The charismatic 24-year-old’s spectacular tale at these Olympics will go down in history as having spearheaded the 4x100m relay team together with Lyndon Ferns, Darian Townsend and Ryk Neethling to a 3:13,17 world record.
Schoeman’s reaction time off the block was quickest at 0,62 seconds against the United States’s Gary Hall who came into the pool area dressed in the stars and stripes as though he were moving into the ring for Wrestlemania.
His power at the end was too much for the mercurial Schoeman, who touched at 22,02sec against the 21,93 of Hall and the 21,94 of Duje Draganja of Croatia.
But what a treasury of medals he takes home, second only to the double-gold of Penny Heyns who remains SA’s top success story with two breast stroke golds in Atlanta 1996. On Wednesday he won silver in the 100m freestyle, leading through the turn but then conceding the gold by 0,06sec to Pieter van den Hoogenband of the Netherlands who won in 48,17sec.
The Tucson University-based sprinter has become a sensation at the Olympics, a role model to his fellow Olympic athletes and an inspiration to all swimmers. He is a deserved hero back home.
But the elation for Schoeman was mirrored by deep sadness for Freitag who floated over 2,10m, 2,15m and 2,20m with ease, but then failed to break the surface in three attempts at 2,25m. The world champion who holds the Africa record at 2,37m needed to clear 2,28m to get into Sunday’s final.
”I reckon we were expecting too much after I missed an entire winter programme after my ankle injury,” said Freitag, who twisted the troublesome ankle in his brand new shoes during training last week. ”I will say that it’s incredible that I’m even here. Consider that my coach (Bob Cervanka) had to get me ready in eight weeks, it was an impossible task.
”And if it wasn’t for [applied kinesiologist] Ron Holder, who got me ready to come here, then had four days to try and fix an injury on top of the one he’d already fixed, I would never have even walked onto the track tonight. Four days ago I couldn’t even walk properly.
”But I had to try. I had to get out here for just in case. I’m bitterly disappointed. It’s not over yet. There’s another Olympics in four years and I have a title to defend at the world champions [in Helsinki next year].”
South Africa’s hockey women bounced back with a surprise 3-0 win against Germany, thanks to goals by Sharne Wehmeyer (30th minute), Pietie Coetzee (10min into second half) and Jenny Wilson (55th).
In athletics, further disaster struck for triple jumper Godfrey Mokoena who apparently misread his starting time for the triple jump and arrived at the Olympic Stadium too late to warm up. He was just in time to start and it came as no surprise when he bombed out of his preliminary in 14th position with 16,32m against that of winner Yoandri Betanzos of Cuba’s 7,53m.
Geraldine Pillay was also unfortunate to have her 100m heat start just as a head wind picked up and she fell out of the first round after finishing sixth in her heat.
Johan Cronje failed to qualify in the 1 500m and Marcus la Grange finished third in his 400m first heat, but his 45,95sec wasn’t fast enough to go through.
It was also a disappointing day for 18-year-old Diver Jenna Dreyer who made her Olympic debut in the 10m platform diving competition. Her 186,90 points earned her 34th and valuable lessons for Beijing 2008.
Shooter Martin Senore failed to make the final eight in the 50m rifle prone competition. He scored a total of 588 points ranking him 39th out of a tightly packed 46 competitors. The women’s épée team failed to beat Greece in a preliminary round whch would have taken them through to meet top ranked Germany. Rachel Barlow and Natalia Tychler were able to out point their host country opponents in one bout each, in a match that lasted a total of 26 minutes 47 seconds and resulted in a 34 to 15 score line.
In swimming, Gerhard Zandberg, Terence Parkin, Eugene Botes and Karl Thaning were visibly disappointed in the men’s 4 x 100 medley relay finishing eighth in the second of two heats. – Sapa