South Africa’s swimmers continued to keep the national team afloat on Monday night, with Michael Houlie and Erin Gallagher stepping on the podium on day five of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. Houlie, a former African Games champion, secured the silver medal in 26.77 seconds in the men’s 50m breaststroke final, with Australian Sam Williamson producing a strong finish to claim victory in 26.50. Behind Houlie, countryman Chris Smith narrowly missed out on a medal, finishing fourth in 26.95, just 0.01 behind former world champion Adam Ramsay-Peaty of England, who touched the wall in 26.94 to snatch bronze.
Gallagher did well to grab the bronze medal in the women’s 100m butterfly final in 57.39, holding off a challenge from Australia’s Brittany Castelluzzo (57.40) to take third place. It was Gallagher’s third medal of the Games after she had earned silver in the 50m butterfly and formed part of the SA 4x100m freestyle relay quartet who secured bronze over the weekend. Erin Gallagher in action in the women’s 100m butterfly event.
And three SA swimmers – Olivia Nel (women’s 50m backstroke), Lara van Niekerk and Rebecca Meder (both in the women’s 50m breaststroke) – kept their medal hopes alive by progressing beyond the semifinals, qualifying for Tuesday night’s finals in their events. Meanwhile, on the opening day of the track and field competition at the multi-sport showpiece, Franco le Roux finished fourth in the men’s 110m hurdles final in 13.60, and Sheryl James was eighth in the T38 women’s 100 final in 14.08. In other sports on Monday, weightlifter Johanni Taljaard narrowly missed out on a medal in the women’s 53kg division.
Lifting a total of 175kg, Taljaard was just 3kg shy of Canadian bronze medallist Rebeka Groulx who successfully raised the bar at a combined 178kg in the snatch and clean and jerk disciplines. In other weightlifting finals, Anneke Spies-Burger was seventh in the women’s 58kg contest, lifting a total of 178kg, and Jon-Antohein Phillips (men’s 79kg) did not register a result. Gymnast Daniel McLean put up a fight to fin…
Summary from source