#WomensMonth - 8 sportswomen flying SA's flag high

South Africa's Caster Semenya celebrates after winning the gold in the final of the Women's 800m during the World Athletics Championships in London Sunday, Aug. 13, 2017. Picture: AP Photo/David J. Phillip

South Africa's Caster Semenya celebrates after winning the gold in the final of the Women's 800m during the World Athletics Championships in London Sunday, Aug. 13, 2017. Picture: AP Photo/David J. Phillip

Published Aug 21, 2017

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While we're still basking in the glory after Caster Semenya clinched the gold last week, we thought we'd take a look at eight South African sportswomen making us proud in the world arena.

Caster Semenya

South Africa's golden girl pounced at just the right time to win the 800m title at the IAAF World Championships in London on August 13.

The 26-year-old brushed off all the negative comments and set a new South African record of 1:55.16, beating her previous best time by more than a tenth of a second, which was also the fastest 800m time in the world this year.

Caster also won a bronze medal in the 1 500m helping South Africa. Her medals also means that Team South Africa can rejoice with a record medal haul of six at a world championships, which places them in third position on the overall medal table.

Dane van Niekerk 

Dane van Niekerk led the Proteas women’s team on their memorable and historic ICC Women’s World Cup campaign that came to a nail-biting conclusion when they lost their semi-final to hosts England by two wickets off the third last ball of the game.

The 24-year-old cricketer played in major teams such as the Highveld Women, Northerns Women, South Africa Women teams.

Her batting style is the right-hand bat and her bowling style is legbreak. She made her first ODI debut in 2009 when the South Africa Women team played against the West Indies Women.

‎Sunette Viljoen

Whoever thinks that women are not good at throwing needs to catch a wake-up call because Sunette Viljoen's javelin skills is a force to be reckoned.

At the 2016 Summer Olympics, she took home silver and two Commonwealth Games gold medals in 2006 and 2010.

She has also represented the country in cricket from 2000 to 2002. She has played one test and a total of 17 ODIs in her cricketing career.

Marizanne Kapp

Marizanne Kapp made her debut at 19 years old at the ICC Women’s World Cup in Australia and has flourished ever since.

In 2013 and 2014, she was named SA Women’s Cricketer of the Year at the annual CSA Awards.

She has played one Test where she scored 19 and 85 ODIs and has scored an impressive 1 532 runs.

Janine van Wyk

Janine van Wyk kicks butt and her ball-kicking skills is even better. Van Wyk is a South African footballer and often plays as defender.

She has become the most capped South African football player of any gender. This simply means that she has represented her country the most in international matches.

In 2005, Van Wyk made the national team debut against Nigeria in the African Women's Championship.

Bongiwe Msomi

Bongiwe Msomi is a netball player who proves that netball is a sport that needs to be taken seriously.

Msomi has represented the country (The Spar Proteas) and she obtained bragging rights when she was made the Vice Captain for the Spar Proteas. She has also played in the England Netball SuperLeague.

In conjunction to being part of the national team and making strides to improve the sport, she is also an ambassador for the Girls Only Project, whiich is aimed at addressing challenges faced by women in sports.

Ilse Hayes

Strong-willed Ilse Hayes was diagnosed with Stargardt’s disease  - a disease which affects the central vision - at the age of 11. But this has not stopped her from reaching her goals.

She started athletics in 2001 and one year later was crowned 400m world champion at the 2002 IPC Athletics World Championships. Her record was 1:01.42.

In April 2015, Hayes became the world’s fastest female para-athlete clocking 11.89 in Brazil.

Zanele Situ

When Zanele Situ was only 12 years old, a TB infection was discovered in her spine. This resulted in Situ being wheelchair-bound. 

Situ made her world athletics debut in 1998 when she represented South Africa at the IPC Athletics World Championships in England. She entered both the javelin and discus events, and took home gold in the javelin with a best throw of 14.45 metres.

At the 2000 Summer Paralympics, she won gold in the F52-54 javelin and a silver in the F51-54 discus. It was here where she became the first South African female black athlete to win a Paralympic title.

IOL

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