Le Clos and Van Biljon shine for SA

Reuters

South African swimmer Chad le Clos reacts after winning the men's 200m butterfly final during the 2012 Olympic Games at the London Aquatics Centre earlier this week.

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London - Chad le Clos and Suzaan van Biljon both achieved milestones in the swimming pool in their respective semi-finals at the Olympic Games in London on Tuesday.

Le Clos secured his fourth final at the Games, becoming the first South African to do so since the country was re-admitted to the global showpiece in 1992.

He became an overnight international sensation after he unseated 15-time Olympic gold medallist Michael Phelps in the 200m butterfly final the night before.

Still reeling from Tuesday night's excitement, Le Clos advanced to the final of the men's 200m individual medley by the skin of his teeth.

Le Clos was up against four-time Olympic medallist Laszlo Cseh of Hungary in his heat as he touched sixth, recording a personal best time of 1:58.49.

His time was just good enough to secure a berth in Thursday's final with the eighth fastest time.

Van Biljon broke Penny Heyns' 13-year-old South African record of 2:23.64 in the women's 200m breaststroke semi-final.

She finished third in her semi-final with a time of 2:23.21 to advance to the final.

The South African men's hockey team rallied from a goal down to end 2-2 against Great Britain in their Olympic pool A clash on Wednesday evening.

The South Africans came from a goal down, took the lead and then saw it slip away as they went in search of a result to get their campaign back on track.

Captain Austin Smith made no mistake as he scored South Africa's first goal of the Olympics from the PC.

Jonty Robinson made it 2-1 a short while later to put SA in the lead for the first time in the fixture.

His celebrations were short-lived, however, as GB equalised with three minutes to play.

Darren Murray came third in his 200m backstroke heat, in 2:00.01, but his overall placing was not good enough to make it through to the semis.

The South African rowing duo of Naydene Smith and Lee-Ann Persse put in a strong effort to finish second in the women's pairs B final on Wednesday.

They crossed the line behind China's Yage Zhang and Yulan Gau.

Smith and Persse started well and led the race to the 1 000m halfway mark but Zhang and Gau dug deep to come back strongly at the end.

Cyclist Ashleigh Moolman finished 24th out of 24 riders in the women's individual time trial event, in a time of 42:23.57.

Moolman finished nearly five minutes behind American rider Kristin Armstrong who won gold and defended her 2008 Beijing Olympic time trial title.

South Africa’s beach volleyball team of Freedom Chiya and Grant Goldschmidt were beaten by the Polish pair of Mariusz Prudel and Grzegorz Fijalek, 21-19 and 21-13, in their final match, bringing an end to their Olympic campaign.

The South Africans lost both of their previous matches - also by two sets to nil - against the US and Latvia. - Sapa

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