The 2018 Commonwealth Games brought much success for Team SA and Athletics SA as a whole. The Gold Coast games not only highlighted the peaks that South African athletes can reach, but it also showed that in time, Team SA could become a dominant powerhouse in the world of athletics.
Wake up, compete, win medals, repeat – that was the recurring theme for Team SA in Australia. A harvest of 37 medals (13 gold, 11 silver and 13 bronze) was enough to leave South Africa sixth overall on the medals table.
SA's consistent improvement on the athletics scene is starting to show. Our athletes finished first on the medals table in the 2017 IAAF Youth Championships in Kenya and seventh at the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games, so the Gold Coast finish is another best performance.
Here's a list of all the Team SA athletes who proved themselves champs in Australia:
Medals:
Gold medals: 13, Silver medals: 11, Bronze medals: 13. TOTAL: 37 medals🏅
Gold:
Henri Schoeman – Men's Triathlon
Tatjana Schoenmaker – Women's 200m Breaststroke
Chad le Clos – Men's 200m Butterfly
Chad le Clos – Men's 50m Butterfly
Chad le Clos – Men's 100m Butterfly
Cameron van der Burgh – Men's 50m Breaststroke
Tatjana Schoenmaker – Women's 100m Breaststroke
Akani Simbine – Men's 100m Track
Caster Semenya – Women's 1,500m Track
Luvo Manyonga – Men's Long Jump
Ndodomzi Ntutu – Men's T12 100m Track
Martin Erasmus – Men's 97kg Wrestling Freestyle
Caster Semenya – Women's 800m Track
Silver:
Chad le Clos – Men's 100m Freestyle
Esme Kruger, Nicolene Neal, Johanna Snyman and Elma Davis – Women's Fours Lawn Bowls
Dylan Buis – Men's T38 100m Track
Christian Sadie – Men's S6 50m Freestyle
Henricho Bruintjies – Men's 100m Track
Brad Tandy – Men's 50 Freestyle
Princess Schreuder and Philippus Walker – Lawn Bowls Mixed B2/B3
Johannes Botha – Men's Wrestling 74kg Freestyle
Hilton Langenhoven – Men's T12 100m Track
Nicolene Neal and Colleen Piketh – Women's Lawn Bowls Pairs
Akani Simbine, Anaso Jobodwana, Henricho Bruintjies and Emile Erasmus – Men's 4x100m Relay
Bronze:
Ryan Coetzee – Men's 50m Butterfly
Cameron van der Burgh – Men's 100m Breaststroke
Cameron van der Burgh, Chad le Clos, Bradley Tandy and Calvyn Justus – Men's 4 x 100m Medley Relay
Colleen Piketh – Women's Singles Lawn Bowls
Mona Pretorius – Women's 63kg Weightlifting
Charl du Toit – Men's T38 100m (WR time)
Sunette Viljoen – Women's Javelin
Reinhardt Hamman – Men's F38 Shot Put
Ruswahl Samaai – Men's Long Jump
Alan Hatherly – Men's Cross-Country Cycling
Christopher Patton, Tobias Botha and Willem Viljoen – Lawn Bowls Triples B6/B7/B8
Wenda Nel – Women's 400m Hurdles
Clint Hendricks – Men's Cycling Road Race
In 2014 in Glasgow, SA bagged 40 medals, 13 of which were gold. While the team has not bettered their tally of gold medals or the total, there was a spread of medals throughout different sporting codes. Here is where Team SA won its medals:
No games round-up would have been complete without mentioning the stellar performances – and biggest disappointments:
Best Moment:
Three-time world champion, two-time Olympic champion and one back-to-back gold medal win at the Commonwealth Games (CWG) – Caster Semenya is golden!
Semenya broke two records in one race, after she took gold in the Women's 800m in a time of 1:56.68 – a Commonwealth Games record. Her 800m win (a distance that she has dominated for several years) also made her the first female athlete to win back-to-back golds in both the 1,500m and 800m.
Best Athlete:
Meet South Africa's new swimming sensation, Tatjana Schoenmaker. The 20-year-old took the games by storm — or, rather, made waves in the pool — as she ascended to the upper echelons of South Africa's swimming sorority. She outshone world stars Chad le Clos and Cameron van der Burgh after winning back-to-back golds.
Schoenmaker is definitely the new poster girl of SA swimming. She won two gold medals, in the women's 100m and 200m breaststroke, smashing the African records for both, the latter with a time of 2:22.02.
Biggest Disappointment:
Defending Commonwealth Games Rugby 7s champions and HSBC Sevens World Series title holders, the Bliztboks, were the favourites to claim the gold once again in 2018, but unfortunately finished in a disappointing fourth place, losing out on a medal in the process.
Still, overall, Team SA enjoyed a successful 2018 Commonwealth Games.
Halala to the champs!