Tokyo Olympics: South Africa on Day Four

Here is a breakdown of all Team SA’s representatives in action at the Tokyo Olympics 2020 on Tuesday. (All times in brackets denote SA times.) Updated through the day.

RUGBY SEVENS

Men’s Pool C, South Africa 17 USA 12: South Africa made it a clean sweep of wins in their group when they beat the USA 17-12 on Tuesday, having beaten Ireland and Kenya the day before.

SWIMMING

Women’s 100m breaststroke, final: SILVER! Tatjana Schoenmaker won the silver medal in 1:05,22, with the gold medal going to 17-year-old American Lydia Jacoby. Schoenmaker, who had been the fastest qualifier and ha  lowered the Olympic record to 1:04.82 in the heats, had led at halfway. She touched the wall in 1:05.22 with the American finishing strongly to win gold in 1:04.95.

Men’s butterfly, semi-final: Chad le Clos, the 2012 Olympic champion, had suffered a scare in the heats, taking the last qualifying spot for the semi-finals. He competed in the first of the two semi-finals, from lane eight and made sure of reaching the final with a start-to-finish win in 1:55.06. It was a dominant performance from the South African who admitted to not getting it right in the heats but he made amends in the semi-finals. He qualified third fastest overall.

SURFING

Women’s competition: Bianca Buitendag had claimed the scalp of seven-time world champion Stephanie Gilmore from Australia in Monday’s third round and here she beat the 23-year-old Portuguese Yolanda Hopkins for a place in the semi-finals. In the semis she saw off Caroline Marks of the USA, 11.00 to 3.67. She’s guaranteed gold or silver later.

TRIATHLON

Women’s Individual, final: A big field of 56 entered, but only 33 finished. While Bermuda’s Flora Duffy, the pre-race favourite, won the race in conditions made difficult due to the overnight rain, Simone Ackerman fared best of the two Team SA athletes. She finished in 17th position, 5min 38sec off the winner. Gill Sanders recorded a DNF after being lapped and not making the transition zone in time.

WATERPOLO

Men’s Group A, South Africa 3 USA 20: In South Africa’s opening game they went down 21-2 to world No7 Italy and here, in what is their first Olympics since 1960, the South Africans competed well against the world No9s. South Africa trailed 0-3 after the first quarter, then 1-12 after the second, then 2-15 in a productive third quarter, and 3-20 at the end.

STILL TO COME

HOCKEY

Men’s Pool B, South Africa vs Belgium – 6.30pm (11.30am): No one was under any illusions when South Africa saw their group at these Olympics. They’re up against Great Britain, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Canada. With two matches completed so far, South Africa have lost 3-1 to GBR and 5-3 to the Netherlands and now face a powerful Belgium unit. The scorelines haven’t done justice to South Africa though as they matched Great Britain for long periods and were actually 3-0 up against the Netherlands before the Dutch fight back.

CYCLING

Women’s Mountain Bike – 3pm (8.00am): Candice Lill lines up with 37 others riders for the women’s cross-country event over 24.4km. This is the second Olympics for the 29-year-old Capetonian who competed at London 2012. The 4.1km circuit (plus a 1.3km start loop) is located near the city of Izu, approximately 150km from Tokyo. The course was designed and built by South African Nick Flores, who also built the 2012 and 2016 Olympic courses and the Pietermaritzburg World Championship and World Cup course.

RUGBY SEVENS

Men’s quarter-finals, 6.30pm (11.30am): South Africa will look to continue their march to medals contention when they come up against Argentina in their quarter-final encounter. The other quarter -finals are: NZ vs Canada, GBR vs USA and Fiji vs Australia

SAILING

Men’s One Person Dinghy (Heavyweight – Finn) 1.05pm (6.05am): Races one and two will be contested. Leo Davis flies the Team SA flag here

Men’s Skiff, 49er – 2.55pm (7.50am): There will be three races for Benji Daniel and Alex Burger

SURFING

Women’s final, 4.31pm (9.31am): Bianca Buitendag has reached the final of the women’s competition, knocking out Australian legend Stephanie Gilmore and No2-ranked Caroline Marks in the process. She’s guaranteed gold or silver.

Compiled by Gary Lemke
Photo: Anton Geyser

Source: TeamSA

How to watch the Olympics if you’re in South Africa

You can watch all the key moments from the Olympics online at www.showmax.com or on your phone using the Showmax app, plus score an additional free month when you sign up for Showmax Pro before 31 August. (To claim your free month, go to www.showmax.com to subscribe or upgrade. That’s it, you’re all set!)