22 August 2008
Johannesburg — THE rain that fell on a brisk, cool Bird's Nest national stadium track last night said it all for SA's performances on the athletics track - a real shower.
First, Mbulaeni Mulaudzi ended his 800m semifinal going backwards, and then the 4x100m men's relay team performed like a school third team, over-running the last change-over zone to disqualify themselves.
Incredibly, the US and Nigeria did the same.
After feeling rocky the previous night with flu, Mulaudzi had the courage to say that he had felt better when he woke up yesterday morning. Given his fate in the race, he could easily have said he felt terrible, but he chose not to.
There was a moment when he thought he had gone through on a technicality, even though he finished sixth in his semifinal. As he walked down the mixed-zone passage, his eyes were fixed on the television screen, waiting for the 800m final line-up. When it appeared, he shouted joyfully: "I'm in, I'm in." Then, another moment of uncertainty as he wended his way, oh so slowly, towards the waiting group of South African journalists, before he looked again and shouted: "It's true, I made it."
Finally, as he arrived in front of his waiting group, the awful truth dawned. He had misread the screen and his Beijing Olympics were over.
"I just had no energy," said a resigned Mulaudzi. "In the first leg I could feel I was battling to move, but you can't just lie down. I could feel the tension in my body, and then I just gave up in the last few metres. When it came to the last straight I could see I was finished. I don't know who passed me at the end. I just thought: 'If two guys pass me then I'm out.'
"Today I felt much better and I thought I could give it a go, but in the end there was no energy."
Team SA's high-performance coach, Wilfred Daniels, said after the relay he did not want to comment. But, asked if the team had practised their handovers at all, he was shocked into answering: "Of course they did but in a relay anything can happen. They are a young team, maybe it was nerves, maybe they could not hear the calls.
"Anything can happen in a relay. Jamaica, the US -- they run out of their lanes or they drop the baton. It happens but I can assure you our guys practised their handovers exten-sively at the training camp in Deagu and here in Beijing."
Daniels' words proved prophetic when, not 10 minutes later, the US women's 4x100m team did indeed drop their baton in heat 1 to cap a terrible night for US relay teams.
Yesterday morning, SA's last hope in the men's canoeing competition, Shaun Rubenstein, was knocked out in the semifinals of the K1 500m class, but Creighton paddler Jennifer Hodson kept Team SA's flag flying, coming third in her semifinal to reach tomorrow's final of the women's K1 event.
Robert Oosthuizen bombed out in qualifying group A of the men's javelin, finishing 11th with a throw of 76,63m.
Marathon athletes Hendrick Ramaala and Norman Dlomo now represent the last realistic hope of another medal in their race, which will end the 2008 Olympics on Sunday morning.
As a winner of the New York Marathon and a half-marathon gold medallist twice, Ramaala will be hoping to emulate Josiah Thugwane, who won marathon gold in Atlanta 12 years ago.
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