Rio de Janeiro – South Africa’s Olympic campaign will start in earnest as the swimming, road cycling, rowing, and gymnastics get underway at the Rio 2016 Games.
The team could earn its first medal by late tomorrow afternoon in the men’s road cycling while the evening’s swimming could also theoretically produce silverware.
The country’s two Tour de France heroes, Daryl Impey and Louis Meintjes, will kick-off the the day’s action in the men’s road race.
The men’s heavyweight pair of Lawrence Brittain and Shaun Keeling will be looking to set the pace for the rowers when they open their account on the Lagoa de Freitas in the morning heats.
For the first time, the swimming heats will be held in the early afternoon with Olympic gold medallist Cameron van der Burgh, Myles Brown, Sebastien Rousseau, and Michael Meyer taking to the pool.
Brown, Meyer, and Rousseau could be challenging for medals should they survive the heats, and qualify for the evening’s finals of their respective events.
South African national swimming coach Graham Hill was upbeat about the team’s preparations ahead of the Games.
“The build-up has been good, everyone is really relaxed, confident and it has been good with the mix of the guys that have been to the Games before,” Hill said.
“Cameron and Sebastien have been here three times so they bring a real calm to the team with their experience.
“We’ve been away for a long time, since May 18, so we are pretty much family now while we had some really good racing and training.”
Rousseau and Meyer will be competing in the 400m Individual Medley while Brown will be aiming for his first Olympic final in the 400m.
Hill said the three swimmers know what is at stake as they only had one chance to make it into their finals.
“We just hope they swim really good times, and we will see what happens from there, we have Myles in the 400m free,” Hill said.
“In 2013 in Barcelona he finished sixth in the 400m free so we really do expect him to get up there and go through.
“But if you look at the psych sheets, he is not in the top 14 but I am sure he will get a good swim there.”
Rubbing shoulders with Meintjes in the atheltes’ village, Hill said the diminutive cyclist looked ready for his ride for a Olympic podium place.
“We’ve chatted to a couple of guys, I met Louis, and I had a quick pic with him, eighth on the Tour, that is pretty good,” Hill said.
“He looked pretty confident and relaxed, he is racing on Saturday and he seems to be in good spirits. After a Tour of three weeks and then you come and race this is pretty tough but he looks confident.”
Meintjes recently made history as the best placed South African yet at the Tour de France when he finished the General Classification in eight place.
He admitted he was still floating on cloud nine as he almost immediately got into his preparations for the Olympics following the Tour.
“It has been pretty busy all the way since Tour de France until now and normally it only sinks in when you return home and spend time with family and friends,” Meintjes said.
“It is going to be a whole different dynamic but if I can have the same form and my body feels the same it will be really good.”
Banyana Banyana will be looking to get their campaign back on track following their 1-0 defeat to Sweden when they take on China here tomorrow evening.
Meanwhile, Ryan Patterson will be in action in the qualification in the men’s artistic gymnastics on the same day. - The Star