LUVO MANYONGA'S incredible jump for a silver medal warmed our hearts early on Sunday and secured Team South Africa’s sixth medal at the Rio Olympics.
But while South Africa are currently leading the race for the most medals by an African country in Rio, four other nations on the continent have also finished among the top three in some events.
The best performance by an African has come from an Ethiopian woman, 10 000m sensation Almaz Ayana. The 24-year-old long-distance runner shattered the world record on Friday night with a superb time of 29 minutes 17.45 seconds (29:17.45), eclipsing the previous mark of 29:31.78 – set by China’s Wang Junxia – which had stood for 23 years.
Ayana was joined on the podium by compatriot Tirunesh Dibaba, who was the defending champion and claimed the bronze medal. The Ethiopians were separated by Kenyan Vivian Cheruiyot, who finished less than a second behind Ayana to clinch silver. Ethiopia won another medal in the men’s 10 000m, with Tamirat Tola ending third behind Britain’s Mo Farah and Kenya’s Paul Tanui.
But Team SA have been the pace-setters for the African continent in Rio with five silvers and a bronze at the conclusion of Saturday’s action. Swimmer Cameron van der Burgh got the ball rolling with a silver in the 100m breaststroke, and was followed by Chad le Clos in the pool.
Le Clos was embroiled in a huge showdown with American legend Michael Phelps in the 100m and 200m butterfly, gaining his first Rio medal in the 200m freestyle.
The 24-year-old from Durban finished joint second in the 100m butterfly behind Singapore’s Joseph Schooling. Le Clos, Phelps and Hungarian Lazslo Cseh all dead-heated for second.
Rowing may not be one of the bigger sports in Africa, but the country's Lawrence Brittain and Shaun Keeling claimed silver in the men’s pairs.
The Blitzboks Sevens team were considered genuine gold medal contenders, but fell short in the semi-final to lose 7-5 to Great Britain. But they picked themselves up to thrash Japan 54-14 for bronze.
Then it was Manyonga – from Mbekweni outside Paarl – who produced a new personal best of 8.37m to take the lead in the long jump final on Sunday morning, but was pipped to the gold by American Jeff Henderson, who leapt 1cm further to win with an 8.38m effort.
Apart from Kenya’s two athletics silvers, Egypt have the same tally thanks to Sara Ahmed and Mahmoud Mohamed, both from weightlifting. The other African country on the medal list is Tunisia, with Ines Boubakri winning a bronze in the women’s foil individual event in fencing.
South Africans Wayde van Niekerk (400m) and Caster Semenya (800m) are favourites to win gold.