CAPE TOWN – South Africa rounded off Tuesday's Day 6 of the 2018 Commonwealth Games on Australia's Gold Coast in superb style to raise their gold medal tally to nine, and 21 overall.
It is still a far cry off from the 40 medals Mzansi won at Glasgow 2014 but there are still five days of competition left to bag more medals by the time the showpieces ends on Sunday.
Swimmer Chad le Clos has been the stand-out South African with a personal haul of five medals (3 gold, a silver and a bronze).
There are a few other SA swimmers who also finished up on Tuesday as multi-medallists.
Champion breaststroker Tatjana Schoenmaker is next best with two golds. Cameron van der Burgh has three (1 gold, 2 bronze) and Bradley Tandy has a silver and a bronze. Ryan Coetzee brings up the rear for the swimming multi-medallists with two bronze.
By the time the athletics programme is done, a few athletes could also end the campaign as multi-medallists, most notably Caster Semenya, who already won the women’s 1500m gold medal.
For the third consecutive day, South Africa ended in fifth position and if they retain that slot by the end of business on Sunday it would an improvement on the final medals table. South Africa finished in seventh position on the Glasgow 2014 medals table.
Simbine and Bruintjies surprised when they beat Yohan Blake in the 100m final. Photo: Andrew Cornaga/photosport.nz
SA gold medal winners to date:
Men’s triathlon:
Henri Schoeman
Women’s 200m breaststroke:
Tatjana Schoenmaker
Men’s 200m butterfly:
Chad le Clos
Men’s 50m butterfly:
Chad le Clos
Men’s 50m breaststroke:
Cameron van der Burgh
Women’s 100m breaststroke:
Tatjana Schoenmaker
Men’s 100m butterfly:
Chad le Clos
Men’s 100m:
Akani Simbine
Women’s 1500m:
Caster Semenya
Medals Table
(tabulated under gold, silver, bronze and total)
1 Australia 50 38 42 (130)
2 England 24 29 21 (74)
3 India 11 4 6 (21)
4 New Zealand 9 10 7 (26)
5 South Africa 9 6 6 (21)
6 Canada 8 21 15 (44)
7 Wales 7 8 7 (22)
8 Scotland 6 10 12 (28)
9 Nigeria 4 4 0 (8)
10 Cyprus 4 0 2 (6)