Ek se mense, where is a South African Olympic Gold coming from?
So far all we have are two silver medals to show for our athletes’ efforts in Tokyo.
A first-ever surfing competition second-place finish for Bianca Buitendag on Tuesday was soon followed by Tatjana Schoenmaker’s runner-up medal in the 100m breaststroke.
Let’s hope it arrived this morning while were still dreaming when Schoenmaker swam in the 200m breaststroke final.
The 24-year-old swimmer has been the fastest in the competition in Japan, setting an Olympic record in both the 100m and the 200m.
But despite her fast times, she needs to do it at the right time – in the final. And that was this morning at 3.14am.
She was joined by Kaylene Corbett, who quietly qualified for the final, with the fourth-best time of the qualifiers.
Corbett’s presence in the pool made it possible for a double podium finish.
These two ladies were the only ones keeping cool by die pool as with Chad le Clos continued his nightmare campaign.
SA’s most successful Olympian looked set for a fifth medal on Wednesday before a disastrous finish to his 200m butterfly final.
Leading the race until the final lap, the 2012 champions lost steam and ended fifth.
It must have been crushing, but he was truly blown out of the water in the shorter 100m yesterday, going out in the heats.
There was little to cheer about in the first week.
The men’s and women’s hockey teams have been getting pak every time they go out to cross sticks with their rivals.
The U23 national soccer team had a disrupted preparation period ahead of the tough Group A campaign.
And they lost every single game, including a seven-goal thriller to France 4-3, despite leading the match three times.
But believe it or not even, our soccer boys weren’t even the most embarrassing team out in the Land of the Rising.
Somehow the Rugby Sevens side managed to lose a game to an Argentina side who had a player sent off with a volle five first-half minutes to play.
Yoh. Even with the Blitzbokke trailing to two stunning early tries in the quarterfinal, I thought they would just hammer home their advantage.
But as the game progressed, it became clear that even if they played for 80 minutes, the South Africans weren’t up for it.
It was a truly hopeless display by the Sevens side, lacking any hunger, cohesion and clear plan – they just froze up and threw it away. I’d never seen anything like that sort of implosion.
SA need to get their heads in it now with the Track and Field programme kicking off for real this weekend.
Sokwakhana Zazini is out of the blocks first when he competes in the men’s 400m hurdles.
With Norway’s Karsten Warholm breaking a 29-year-old world record in this competition on July 1, gold seems a far cry in this.
But with the men’s 100m final coming up on Sunday already, Akani Simbine, Shawn Maswanganyi and Gift Leotlela will have to get up to speed gou.
With the second fastest time in the world this year, an African record of 9.84, Simbine has a shot at a podium finish.
Maar moenie vir Leotlela weggooi nie. He has a top-10 time in 2021 with 9.94.
Only five men, including Simbine, at Tokyo have run faster than him this season.
Maswanganyi, who will compete in both the 100m and 200m. is an outsider in the short race. But watch out for him with Wednesday’s half-lap final coming up fast. He has been racing on the US circuit and his battle-hardened.
Our men’s sprinters have been tearing up the track this season and we need no further proof of that than their World Relay 4 x 100m title in May this year.
While that quartet aren’t all in Japan, there is no shortage of spoedvrate to pick from – with Clarence Munyai and Wayde van Niekerk also at the Games.
Finally, the men’s long jump could throw up a surprise with Ruswahl Samaai and Cheswill Johnson competing ahead of Friday’s final.
Samaai has a World Championship bronze medal from 2017 that he has failed to build on.
But the athlete from Paarl has the ambition and potential to claim a major medal again.
After the Olympics was postponed from last year, it’s could be one of these manne’s moment in time.