Manchester - South Africa's Natalie du Toit won her second gold medal at the Commonwealth Games on Friday and was greeted with a standing ovation inside the Manchester Aquatic Centre.
The 18-year-old amputee swimmer from Cape Town lifted her country's medals tally to 32 and - within a half-hour of winning gold for Elite Athletes with Disabilities (EAD) - Du Toit matched the best able-bodied swimmers in the open 800-metre freestyle.
Du Toit, who had her lower left leg amputated after an auto accident last year, made history in Manchester by competing in open and disabled events.
With two world records and two gold medals in the 50m and 100m EAD freestyle events, Du Toit finished eighth in the open 800m in 9min 13.59sec. Rebecca Cooke of England won the event in 8:28.54.
Swimmers coughed up two more medals for South Africa as Mandy Loots won silver and Ryk Neethling bronze at the Manchester Aquatic Centre.
South Africa - with seven gold, 13 silver and 12 bronze - are now only two shy of the 34 medals (nine gold, 11 silver, 14 bronze) they bagged at Kuala Lumpur 1998.
And two more medals are assured this weekend - the best bet being boxer Kwanele Zulu, who is within reach of a gold as he takes on Australian Daniel Geale in the welterweight final on Saturday.
The pair of Shaun Addinall and Gerry Baker have at least a bowls bronze guaranteed.
The South Africans beat Martin McHugh and Gary McCloy of Northern Ireland in their quarterfinal of the men's pairs competition on Friday to advance to the semifinals.
The SA men's hockey team are also in with a shout on Sunday, despite going down 3-1 to Australia in Friday's semifinal.
South Africa will play off against Pakistan for the bronze medal, after New Zealand won their semifinal 7-1.
In the pool, Sarah Poewe (100m breaststroke), Charlene Whittstock (50m back), Brett Petersen (50m breast), Theo Verster (100m butterfly) and Gerhard Zandberg (100m back) all made it to the weekend's finals.
Loots and Neethling's latest swimming medals brought to five the number awarded to South Africa on Friday, with the shottists having weighed in with two silvers and a bronze in the afternoon.
Loots clocked 59.68 seconds in the 100-metre butterfly final behind Australia's Petria Thomas (58.57) for her silverware in the pool, beating Canada's Jennifer Button (60.22).
Thomas, a world champion at the 100 butterfly, powered out of the blocks and was never headed. She also won the 50m butterfly and a bronze in the 200m freestyle.
Neethling won bronze in the 100m freestyle behind Australians Ian Thorpe and Ashley Callus, with Thorpe taking his gold haul at the Games to five.
Thorpe won in 48.73sec, Callus took silver in 49.45 and Neethling grabbed bronze in 49.71.
In shooting, India's Jaspal Rana won gold in the 25m standard pistol shooting event, beating South Africa's Frikkie van Tonder (silver) and England's Michael Gault (bronze).
David Dodds was narrowly edged out of top spot in the open bore rifle competition by David Calvert of Northern Ireland.
In the men's 25m rapid fire pistol event Allan McDonald came in third behind Canada's Metodi Igorov.
While, the SA netball team wrapped up their Games with a 71-27 victory over Wales, for fifth position, the Springbok sevens rugby outfit began their campaign with a 26-12 win over Tonga. - Sapa