Forget the tracksuits, count the medals: South Africa celebrate Rio revival

WINNING BY A MARGIN: Caster Semenya

When your president rouses himself on a Sunday to congratulate a South African sports team, you know you've done okay.

As in all sports, you can only judge a team by its results. And on that basis, South Africa’s Olympians at Rio 2016 have to be given a massive pat on the back. Even Jacob Zuma said they were "outstanding" on Sunday morning as the sporting carnival drew to a close.

Sure, we can pick out the weaknesses. The bizarre retro tracksuits, those who finished out of the top 50 in their events, the lack of ANY relay teams and the non-travelling hockey teams.

But history will reflect South Africa’s most successful Olympics since re-introduction in 1992. The target of 10 medals was met. And two glittering gold medals will return to these shores.

The golden moment of a fascinating week of athletics has to go to Wayde van Niekerk. He shattered Michael Johnson’s apparently indomitable world record over 400m and is now a household name around the globe.

Caster Semenya, tweeting bizarre pre-race assertions on a now-verified twitter account, did EXACTLY what she promised, winning the women’s 800m by an even greater margin than Wayde.

Shrugging off the approaching storm, Semenya said: "It's just fantastic. Thanks to team, my physios, my coach, my training partners, my wife and my family. Great job. If it wasn't for them I wouldn't be here today."

The question is: will Caster's gold lead to a long-lasting change in attitudes to same-sex marriage among the traditionally conservative sporting fraternity? Let's hope so.

There's more, much more. Henri Schoeman’s surprise bronze in the triathlon - he finished just ahead of compatriot and medal favourite Richard Murray in fourth - was a major boost, Chad Le Clos became our most decorated Olympian by adding two further silvers in the pool, and Sunette Viljoen speared silver too with her opening throw.

Once more, South Africa emerges as an African Olympian giant, second only to Kenya’s middle-distance kings in the medals table. Nigeria, with a population five times ours, only managed a single medal, bronze in the football.

Yes, there were controversies. But the greatest of those were unifying tales, great stories that drew the nation together.

Luvo Manyango’s dramatic silver medal in the long-jump came despite drug addiction and a doping ban. Viljoen’s javelin tore through the heart when we read how her brother struck her twice when she came out as a homosexual.

And of course, Caster - ironically attempting to usurp the androgynous Jarmila Kratochvilova’s 1983 world record - sailed through the storm over her gender with aplomb. Soon, given a pace-maker, will we see her become the fastest woman ever over two laps.

We can talk of medals and success - Sports Minister Mbalula Fikile will make sure of that - despite a feeling in the gut that many of our athletes succeeded DESPITE the efforts of SASCOC not BECAUSE of the Tubby Reddy brigade.

But I’ll celebrate the 2016 Olympics in Rio because it brought the nation together. Some tried to talk about race, others gave up after both South African teams went out early in the football tournament.

For the TRUTH about 2016, you had to be on the social networks in the early hours of Sunday morning as Caster prepared to deliver the gold I guaranteed all week on eTV Sunrise.

The Rainbow Nation stayed awake, as many had for a fortnight of Brazilian brilliance. And we celebrated together as one when Mokgadi made a mockery of an 800m field shorn of Russians.

And who knows, when the dust settles, the woman that beat her in to the silver medal position at London 2012, Mariya Savinova, may  yet be deprived of her ill-gotten gold. And we’ll discover that “our Caster” did what Mo Farah and Usain Bolt did: defended her title.

But for now, let’s celebrate. With Usain Bolt and Justin Gatlin on the way out, Wayde van Niekerk, Anasa Jobodwzne and Akani Simbine could be set for years of sprinting success for South Africa.

Building on success has never been a great South African sporting trait. This time, the opportunity should not be missed.

Anaso Jobodwane takes on Usain Bolt tonight: but he nearly missed out on London

Right on track: Jobodwane and Bolt last night

ANASO JOBODWANE finds himself listed among the eight fastest men on the planet over 200m tonight at 21.55 South African time – but he very nearly missed out on the London Olympics altogether.

The 20-year-old from King William’s Town heralded a revolution in South African sprinting last night when he chased double-100m gold medallist Usain Bolt to the line in the 200m semi-final, the only man to give the giant Jamaican a run for his money.
Afterwards he said: "I wasn't thinking about how tough it was racing against Bolt, I just wanted to run my own race. I ran the bend well, I'll have to look at the tape to see how I did. I was gunning for a semi-final, it's a bonus now. It was amazing to be on the tail of Usain Bolt. Beat him in the final? Hahaha! Next few years!"

Few expected that swift feat from Jobodwane after he spent most of 2011 out with injury – and was named as a “late addition” to Team South Africa after meeting SASCOC’s stuper-stringent qualifying standards just two weeks before the deadline.

Nobody doubts the “Ambitious Jay” pedigree. Two years ago, as a student at Selborne College, Jobodwane won the South African schools 200m in a record 20.95secs.

Then he became an All-American track and field champion with an indoor time of 20.66secs.  That was followed by an outdoor time of 20.32 in March while studying biology at Jackson State University in Mississippi – well within the Olympic “A” qualifying time of 20.55.

While that would have been enough for most national Olympic selection panels, SASOC requires TWO of those “A” qualifying times, a dubious policy which saw Africa 100m champion Simon Magakwe fail to make the team for London despite equalling the South Africa record of 10.07secs and running under 10 seconds in training.

With that sort of snub in mind, Jobodwane left his studies in the USA to focus on qualifying for London 2012 – which he finally did with a time of 20.50 to take victory at the obscure 17th Miner’s Day International Athletics Meeting in the remote Slovenian town of Velenje.

On July 4, he was one of the 14 athletes added to South Africa’s original team of125 named on June 6. But with no sprint medal won by South Africa since 1910, when Durban’s Reggie Walker became the world’s youngest Olympic 100m champion in London, few thought Jobodwane would emerge as a finalist.

Before last night’s personal best of 20.27, Jobodwana's best time of 20.32 seconds ranked him 22nd in the world this year. Afterwards, he added: “I don’t want to put too much pressure on myself. I didn't expect it... I was just going out there to run a personal best. So I got that and I got to the final - a bonus.”

Having just turned 20, Jobodwane has a lot in common with Chad le Clos, the man who won gold and silver in the pool for South Africa last week. Like Chad, Anaso said before London he would be happy to use 2012 as preparation for Rio in 2016. And like Le Clos, he finds himself up against a legend.

But where Le Clos – who arrived back in Johannesburg this morning to a hero’s welcome - edged out Michael Phelps in the 100m butterfly final by 0.05 of a second, Jobodwane surely has no chance of pipping the lightning Bolt to the line – or his Jamaican team-mate Yohan Blake.

After Bridgette Hartley’s bronze – South Africa’s fifth medal – in the K1 500 at Dorney this morning, Jobodwane would do well to finish in the top five (he'd have to run under 20 seconds for the first time in his life to get close to a medal) while Sunette Viljoen, second in qualifying, goes for gold in the javelin tonight and Caster Semenya runs in the 800m semi-finals at 8.30pm.

Still, like Le Clos, Jobodwane appears to have a father who is a bit of a character. Mkhuseli Jobodwana, director of remand administration at the Department of Correctional Services head office in Pretoria, told The New Age: “I am very excited. Do you even need to ask what we’ll do for my boy when he gets back?

“We are going to have a huge traditional celebration at our village in Khwetyana in the Eastern Cape because he didn’t only make us proud, but the entire village and country.

“We will slaughter two or more fat cows as one will not be enough.”

A buzzing capital city, a sold-out stadium, a rousing triumph: Usain Bolt is not alone

Fastest man on the planet: Usain Bolt on Sunday night

What a showdown: a sold-out stadium in the capital with support split evenly between the two big guns of their sporting sphere. The long-awaited clash of the titans. And almost from the start, just one dominating force; unstoppable, devastating. In the end it was a no-contest, a crushing victory which will live in the sporting memory for years to come.

But perhaps we should leave Kaizer Chiefs to lick their wounds rather then re-live the events of Loftus Versfeld on Sunday, where big-spending Mamelodi Sundowns cruised to an emphatic 4-1 win over the mighty Amakhosi.

With Thamsanqa Sangweni, Tebogo Langerman, Lebohang Mokoena and the impressive Edward Manqele all scoring before the 37^th minute, many were considering calling in the army to protect the senseless slaughter of the hapless Zebras.

Yes, the season-opening MTN8 quarter-final – which also produced wins for Orlando Pirates, Moroka Swallows and SuperSport United – was quite something.

As I predicted last week, Sundowns’ Dutch coach Johan Neeskens left new Chiefs boss Stuart Baxter clutching at straws like this: “If we could have kept it in reach when we came in at half-time, we could have turned a few things around and maybe would have had a chance in the second-half.

"This result tells you that we have a lot of work to do. We'll lick our wounds, we'll sharpen our knives again and we'll get back to the job. It's certainly not going to be a pleasant evening."

In fact, for most sports lovers, it was a very pleasant evening as we went on to that other clash of the titans in another capital – London, which is in the midst of a ridiculously entertaining 30^th summer Olympics.

In the sparkling new stadium in run-down Stratford, South Africans were riveted by the men’s 100m final which saw the showman Usain Bolt justify his arrogant pre-race antics with a sensational victory over fellow Jamaican Yohan Blake. To have confidence like that, the bloke has to be running world records at every training session, despite his recent injury problems.

Whilst proving lightning Bolts CAN strike twice, Bolt’s first-ever successful defence of the defining event of the modern Olympiad saw a record SEVEN men break the 10 second barrier.

Bolt’s time of 9.63secs was a new Olympic record but just a stride short of his world record 9.58. That wasn’t the point: "I’m one step closer to become a legend,” he said, “This means a lot, because some people were doubting. A lot of people were saying I wasn't going to win, I didn't look good. There was a lot of talk.

"It's an even greater feeling to come out here and defend my title and show the world I'm still No. 1. So I'm happy with myself."

Bolt isn’t entirely content though. Here’s what he said about the security in London: “I was in the line, we were waiting to run and the guy was telling me to line up straight. I was like, ‘Really? We’re about to run and they are going to make me stand in a straight line?’ There are just some weird rules here.

“Then they saw my skipping rope. They said I can’t bring it in, and I asked, ‘Why?” They just said, ‘It is the rules.’ So if I have a rubber band that I need to stretch, I can’t take it in. And when I asked why, they say, ‘It’s just the rules.’ It’s just some weird small rules that don’t make any sense to me, personally.”

And so ended another weekend of frantic Olympic gold mining. South Africa’s Oscar Pistorius made history by becoming the first amputee to compete in the Olympics, Kenya did the traditional thing in the 3,000m steeple-chase, Great Britain’s Andy Murray crushed Roger Federer to win gold at Wimbledon, the drunken fan who threw a bottle at the 100m starters was soundly thumped by Dutch judoka bronze medallist Edith Bosch, who tweeted: “Een dronken gast voor mij gooit een flesje op de baan!! IK HEB HEM GESLAGEN. Ongelofelijk!!”

Most South Africans will understand that to mean: “One drunken guest in front of me threw a bottle on the track. I WHACKED HIM! Unbelievable.”

And after translation, a little lesson in spelling. Note the difference between the following two sentences: South Africa has won gold. Australia has one gold.

In fact, South Africa has a record-equalling three golds and one silver so far. And we still have Richard Murray (triathlon, today), Sunette Viljoen (javelin, Thursday), Bridgitte Hartley (women’s K1 500, Thursday), Siphiso “Skizo” Nhlapo (BMX, Friday), Caster Semenya (800m, Saturday) and Bury Stander (mountain biking, Sunday) to come.

Yes, Team South Africa have pleny to look forward to. And I offer the estimated 15 million devastated Amakhosi this: “Khosi 4-1 life!”