For Andrew Cronje, the South African men’s opening Olympic hockey match against Australia turned out to be a bitter-sweet game.
He was singled out by the announcer before the match for playing his 100th match, but by the final whistle his joy had diminished to the extent it was probably a match he would rather forget.
The potent Australians, the top-ranked side in the tournament, completely outplayed Cronje and his teammates and the result was depressingly similar to the South African women’s 1-7 opener the previous day.
In the end, the favourites claimed a morale-boosting 6-0 win, but the scoreline could well have been much bigger with only some excellent goalkeeping from Erasmus Pieterse and a few lucky breaks preventing the Aussies from notching up double figures.
“It’s always a very proud moment,” said Cronje when asked about his landmark 100th cap.
“I didn’t think I’d get here when I started off, but as this game was drawing closer I got very excited.
“To do it with this team, this group of players and these friends is an extremely proud moment for me, but ultimately we are here to get results and need to get that right.
“It’s more important to get the three points than the 100 caps, but we’ve got five, six, more matches to go and that’s what we’ll be focusing on going forward.”
Partly according to plan and partly due to the pressure exerted by their opponents, South Africa played large portions of the game deep in their own half and there were periods when the only person in the Australian half of the field was their goalkeeper.
The Australians fired in 18 shots at goal, with South Africa getting two – one of which was a weak, bobbling mis-hit from Marvin Harper which barely reached the goal.
The Aussies were also awarded seven penalty corners to their hapless opponents’ one, a decision which was heart- breakingly overturned on video appeal.
While Cronje was lamenting his unhappy landmark, the Australian captain was able to enjoy a triple celebration.
Aussie skipper Jamie Dwyer not only scored a hat-trick via two penalty strokes and a scrambled goal off a penalty corner, he also became the joint top-scorer for Australia with 179 goals – and of course his team started their Olympic tournament with a perfect result.
The South Africans now have to regroup and look forward to another tough match tomorrow against Great Britain, an easier team on paper, but a side that will have the vociferous backing of the passionate home supporters.
Team South Africa meanwhile seemed to suffer through a painful Olympic hangover after the celebrations of Cameron van der Burgh’s golden swim on Sunday night.
The only South African at London 2012 who seemed to be inspired by Van der Burgh was Chad le Clos, who produced a quick swim in the morning to finish second in his heat.
For the rest, it was a day to forget with a host of South Africans being knocked out of competition.
The day started with the oldest member of the national team, archer Karen Hultzer, bowing out to Italian Pia Lionetti. The high flying member of the Italian Air Force shot down Hultzer hopes with a solid 6-2 scoreline.
Hultzer, 4-0 down and facing elimination at the start of the third set, mounted a brief comeback against an opponent who was 22-years her junior with two arrows in the 10 to pull back to 4-2.
But then she crumbled meekly with an eight, a three and a four in the fourth set, leaving Lionetti the winner before she had even shot her final arrow of the set.
Except for Le Clos, things never got better for the South Africans from there.
In the pool, Kathryn Meaklim and Karin Prinsloo were both seventh in their heats and for the latter it is the end of her Games.
Gideon van Zyl was knocked out of the judo competition by Azerbaijan’s Rustam Orujov in the first round.
Freedom Chiya and Grant Goldschmidt confirmed they will be going home after their final pool match in the beach volleyball tomorrow when they were beaten 2-0 for the second time in a row, this time by the Latvian pair of Aleksandrs Samoilovs and Ruslans Sorokins.
At the rowing venue of Eton Dorney, the women’s pair team of Lee-Ann Persse and Naydene Smith finished fifth in their repechage and will take part only in the B final tomorrow.
Michelle Edwards and Annari Viljoen lost 21-18 21-10 to Greysia Polii and Meiliana Jauhari of Indonesia in the women’s badminton doubles.
It was their third loss in a row and they have ended bottom of their pool.
Controversial horse rider Alex Peternell had a better day in the saddle.
His slow time meant he finished well down the field despite no penalty points, but with a significant portion of the field being eliminated on the tricky course he has improved his position dramatically, although he is way out of contention to get into the showjumping final tomorrow. – The Star