Lara van Niekerk wins gold again as SA swimmers bag five more medals

Breaststroke specialist Lara van Niekerk stole the show on Tuesday night during a memorable evening for the national swimming team, as the SA squad earned five medals on day six of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. Van Niekerk retained the women’s 50m breaststroke title she won in Birmingham four years ago, claiming gold in 30.43 seconds. She finished 0.11 ahead of Australia’s Sienna Toohey, who took second place in 30.54, while South Africa’s Rebecca Meder was eighth in 31.81.

In other finals in the pool, Aimee Canny grabbed silver in 2:09.37 in the women’s 200m individual medley. Behind Canny, her compatriot Meder took seventh position in 2:11.23. Later in the session, Canny went on to join Pieter Coetzé, Michael Houlie and Erin Gallagher in securing another silver in the mixed medley 4x100m relay, setting a new African record of 3:42.61.

Both Canny and Coetzé earned their fourth podium places at the multi-sport Games. Nathan Hendricks snatched a silver medal in 24.84 in the S13 men’s 50m freestyle, adding to the gold he won in the 100m freestyle in his disability class last week, while Danika Vyncke also claimed silver in the S13 women’s 50m freestyle, setting an African record of 28.41. And Olivia Nel, the only other South African competing in a final in the pool on Tuesday, finished fifth in the 50m backstroke final in 27.95 In semifinal races, five SA swimmers – Calvyn Justus (men’s 50m butterfly), Coetzé and Ruard van Renen (both in the men’s 100m backstroke), and Caitlin de Lange and Jessica Thompson (women’s 50m freestyle) – kept their medal hopes alive by booking their spots in finals to be held on Wednesday evening.

Other sports Meanwhile, on the track, Gift Leotlela was edged into fourth place in the men’s 100m final, held in wet conditions. Leotlela set a season’s best of 9.91 seconds, missing out on a medal by 0.01, while countryman Cheswill Johnson settled for eighth place in 10.13. Earlier in the evening session, Bradley Nkoana had missed out on a place in the short sprint final after being disqualified for a false start in his semifinal.

In weightlifting, Laryne Jefferies took eighth position in the women’s 69kg division, lifting a total of 196kg, while William Swart did not register a result in the men’s 88kg contest. On the netball court, the Proteas remained unbeaten in Pool A, beating Northern Ireland 78-30 to pick up their third win o…