Mbulaeni Mulaudzi and Hezekiel Sepeng were whip-cracking sharp in their opening 800m rounds of the Athens Olympics at the Olympic Stadium on Wednesday night. Not so happy were pole-vaulter Okkert Brits, 110m hurdler Shaun Bownes and javelin-thrower Sunette Viljoen, who all failed to go through to their following rounds.
Special Report: Olympics 2004
Tiny Stephanie Sandler is the baby in the South African Olympic team. On Thursday she performed her heart out in rhythmic gymnastics to finish 23rd in the hoops and ball disciplines and ended with a flurry of confidence that bodes well for when she competes in the baton and ribbon events on Friday.
Special Report: Olympics 2004
South African canoeist Alan van Coller bowed out of the Athens Olympics 500m K1 in a titanic semifinal in which he finished fourth. The 36-year-old from Bryanston, who is a hero and role model to thousands of paddlers, drove himself to his physical limits in the effort to secure a top-three finish and a place in the final.
Special Report: Olympics 2004
Alwyn Myburgh — the pick of the South African 400m hurdles crop after a nail-biting semifinal on Tuesday night — failed to win any medals in the final on Thursday night. Felix Sanchez redeemed himself on Thursday to win the event — giving the Dominican Republic their first-ever athletics Olympic gold medal.
Special Report: Olympics 2004
Sundowns were fortunate to gain maximum points when they beat Santos 2-0 in a Castle Premier League game played at the Athlone Stadium on Wednesday night. Two glaring mistakes by rookie Santos goalkeeper Ryan Wuest cost Santos dearly. The first goal came in the 42nd minute.
About 2 000 ecstatic Zimbabweans rolled out a red-carpet welcome to swimmer Kirsty Coventry, the country’s first-ever triple Olympic medal winner. At a reception party held in Coventry’s honour, Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe gave her 000 (United States dollars) for her achievement.
The Olympic women’s hockey tournament ended on a high note for the weary South African team. They beat sixth-ranked Spain 4-3 after extra time in a play-off for last place in the final game of the tournament. ”I am going to have a beer now and spend some time on the beach with the girls,” said relieved coach Ros Howell.
Wearing a reminder of his painful failure four years ago, Felix Sanchez redeemed himself on Thursday to win the Olympic gold medal in the 400m hurdles. Three days after capturing the 800m Olympic medal, Kelly Holmes of Britain kept alive her hopes of a rare double when she cruised into the final of the 1 500m.
Reporters sans Frontières on Thursday launched a website calling for a boycott of the Beijing 2008 Olympics over the human rights record of ”one of the world’s bloodiest dictatorships”. The Paris-based media watchdog said China had failed to improve its rights record since being controversially awarded the Games in 2001.
Israel won their first Olympic gold medal on Wednesday when a man whose father named him after the sea won a windsurfing class at the Athens Games, while track cyclists led Australia to equal their highest Olympic medal tally. The United States lead the medal count with 25 golds, 29 silver and 22 bronze after 11 days of competition.
Special Report: Olympics 2004