South Africa: Olympic Silver Lining for Deserving Simbine While Van Dyk Bumps Up SA Medal Tally

11 August 2024
Daily Maverick (Johannesburg)
By Keanan Hemmonsbey

Jo-Ané van Dyk stunned the javelin field with her silver medal effort inside the Stade de France on Saturday while Akani Simbine and co pulled off a sensational silver in the 4x100m relay.

Listen to this article 6 min Listen to this article 6 min After years of being the nearly-man of world athletics, 100m sprinter Akani Simbine finally has an Olympic medal as a symbol of his excellence, consistency and longevity in the sport.

On the penultimate night of action in the Olympic stadium, 30-year-old sprint star Simbine, who led youngsters Shaun Maswanganyi (23), Bradley Nkoana (19) and Bayanda Walaza (18) - Walaza is still in high school - to a silver medal in the men's 4x100m sprint relay.

advertisementDon't want to see this? Remove adsThe youngsters held their own against a competitive field of athletes, but Simbine, running the anchor leg, ensured the medal for South Africa with a blistering run of 8.78s. He took the team from fifth to second in that time.

Simbine received the baton with Italy, Japan, France and Canada ahead and Great Britain tight on his heels. He managed to haul in France, Japan and Italy - as did Great Britain - but just ran out of track to catch up with Canada's Andre De Grasse.

Canada closed in 37.50sec, South Africa in 37.57sec and team GB claimed bronze in 37.61sec.

"I'm so happy that...

Read the full story on Daily Maverick.

Tagged:
Copyright © 2024 Daily Maverick. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.

AllAfrica publishes around 500 reports a day from more than 100 news organizations and over 500 other institutions and individuals, representing a diversity of positions on every topic. We publish news and views ranging from vigorous opponents of governments to government publications and spokespersons. Publishers named above each report are responsible for their own content, which AllAfrica does not have the legal right to edit or correct.

Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica. To address comments or complaints, please Contact us.