United States swimming sensation Michael Phelps took centre stage at the Olympics in Athens on Friday by bagging his fifth gold medal of the Games as two new drugs cases emerged. Phelps produced a lung-bursting late surge to snatch victory by his fingertips in the 100m butterfly.
Roland Schoeman added bronze to his gold and silver in the swimming to keep South Africa’s medal tally afloat at the Olympics, but world high-jump champion Jacques Freitag sunk out of contention. Schoeman may have missed becoming South Africa’s swimming sprint king of the world by 0,15 seconds.
Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia won the Olympic Games men’s 10 000m gold medal in Athens on Friday to take the first step towards the possibility of becoming the first athlete since compatriot Miruts Yifter in 1980 to do the 5 000m and 10 000m double. Two-time Olympic champion Haile Gebrselassie took fifth place.
Special Report: Olympics 2004
Chaminda Vaas produced timely efforts with both bat and ball as Sri Lanka scored a three-wicket win over South Africa in the first one-day international at the Premdasa Stadium in Colombo on Friday. Vaas took four wickets to restrict South Africa to 263-9 and then chipped in with a useful 18 runs.
A crowd of more than 10 000 turned out to bid farewell to Corne Krige and witnessed Western Province hand out a rugby lesson to Griqualand West by beating them 63-6 at Newlands on Friday night. Province led 20-0 at half-time and ended a run of dismal performances, including two home defeats.
South African rowers Donovan Cech and Ramon di Clemente won bronze with a time of six minutes and 33,40 seconds in the coxless pairs rowing at the Olympic Games in Athens on Saturday. The world champions, Australia’s Drew Ginn and James Tomkins, cruised to victory.
Schoeman takes bronze
Special Report: Olympics 2004
Seven people were killed and 70 to 80 injured on Saturday when a series of bombs ripped through an opposition party rally in the Bangladesh capital, an Awami League party official said. The explosions at the rally attended by party leader Sheikh Hasina Wajed sent people scattering in panic.
A complaint against the high prices charged for Aids drugs by pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline has been taken to the Competition Tribunal in Pretoria, the Aids Healthcare Foundation (AHF) said on Friday. The AHF claims the drug manufacturer’s pricing is to the detriment of South Africans with HIV/Aids.
The last surviving British World War II gunboat in existence could be sold to collectors in Germany due to the lack of a domestic purchaser, its owner said on Friday. Phil Clabburn has spent the past five years and £500 000 (about R5,85-million) restoring the MGB81 boat, which saw action on D-Day in June 1944.
South Africa’s biggest trade union movement said on Friday it will work with major labour federations from Nigeria and Ghana to have a say in decisions taken by the African Union. Leaders from the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) held two days of talks with the Nigerian Labour Congress and the Ghana Trade Union Congress.