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TEAM SA SHINES AT COMMONWEALTH GAMES
By Thursday, 12 April, South Africa was fifth on the medal table with 32 medals (11 gold, nine silver and 12 bronze).

Team South Africa got off to a golden Commonwealth Games start as Henri Schoeman won the menˇ¦s triathlon event on the first day of competition at Gold Coast, Australia. The tiny Durbanite dominated the 750-m swim, 20-km cycle and 5-km run from start to finish, winning in 52:31 ˇV seven seconds clear of local favourite Jake Birtwhistle.

Esme Kruger, Nicolene Neal, Johanna Snyman and Elma Davis took silver for South Africa in the women's fours bowls final against Australia, adding Team SA's fifth silver medal of the competition.

Chad le Clos outclassed a quality field to win his third straight 200m Commonwealth Games butterfly title, breaking the event record in the process and ensuring he becomes part of Games folklore.

And on a truly memorable evening for South Africa, Tatjana Schoenmaker produced the performance of her life to claim the gold in the 200m breaststroke. The 20-year-old from Pretoria has planted herself well and truly on the international swimming landscape and her 2:22.02 performance was an African record. It also sliced some 1.55 seconds off her personal best and she left Englandˇ¦s Molly Renshaw trailing in her wake.

South Africa hasnˇ¦t been as excited about a female breaststroker since Penny Heyns ruled the world ˇV and here at the Commonwealth Games, Schoenmaker has gone faster in both the 50 and the 200m than the legendary Heyns ever did.

It was raining gold for Team SA on day five of the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games as Akani Simbine, Cameron Van Der Burgh, Chad Le Clos and Tatjana Schoenmaker all took gold, which saw South Africa surge up to fifth on the medals table with eight golds.

Akani Simbine and Henricho Bruintjies took gold and silver in the men's 100m final with a time of (10.03) and (10.21) respectively -- with a particular Usain Bolt showing acknowledgement to Simbine, who could possibly be the heir to his 100m throne.

In the pool, the trio of le Clos, van der Burgh and Schoenmaker all took gold in what was an impeccable display in the pool for the South Africab swimmers. Le Clos took gold and made it a golden treble as he broke the Commonwealth Games record that he'd set in 2014 with a 50.65 performance in the 100m butterfly.

Van der Burgh took gold in the 50m breaststroke beating world record holder Adam Peaty to win in 26.48.

Schoemaker smashed the African record for the 200m breaststroke and won her second gold of the Games with a time 1:06.41.

South Africa rounded off a hugely successful campaign in the pool by adding another two Commonwealth Games medals to their total on Tuesday night.

That took their combined total in the pool to 12, after Le Clos had won four individual medals, Schoenmaker had claimed two golds, Van der Burgh a gold and bronze and a medal each for Ryan Coetzee, Christian Sadie and Brad Tandy. Le Clos and Van der Burgh were also part of the relay team which took bronze in closing off the swimming programme at the Games.

During the week, Le Clos became the most decorated Commonwealth Games swimming medallist and his haul of five took him to 17, one behind Australian shottist Phillip Adams.

Another duo of Dyan Buis, who took silver, and Charl du Toit, who took bronze for the men's T38 100m, made it a phenomenal day five for South Africa.

Caster Semenya dedicated her spectacular 1 500m Commonwealth Games gold medal to her country after the South African smashed Zola Budd's national record by more than a second on Tuesday, 10 April.

The middle-distance star was never in trouble on a track that had been dampened by rain on Australia's Gold Coast and she powered to the line to grab a slice of history.

The 27-year-old, the reigning double Olympic and world champion over 800m, clocked a Games-record time of 4mins 00.71secs to demolish the South African mark of 4:01.81 set by Budd in 1984.

Luvo Manyonga and fellow long jumper Ruswahl Samaai, Sunette Viljoen (javelin) and Reinhardt Hamman (shot put) had a field night as they added four more medals to the rainbow nationˇ¦s tally with Manyonga winning gold in the long jump with a Games record of 8.41 metres with his sixth and final jump.

South Africaˇ¦s Alan Hatherly won bronze in the menˇ¦s mountain bike cross-country event.

According to the Team SA website, it is South Africaˇ¦s first Commonwealth Games medal in this event.

ˇV Source: www.sport24.co.za / www.huffingtonpost.co.za

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