SA sprinters qualify for relay final, Piketh and Neal win bowls silver

Akani Simbine takes the baton from Anaso Jobodwana during the mens 4x100 relay heats at teh Commonwealth Games on Friday. Photo: EPA/DEAN LEWINS

Akani Simbine takes the baton from Anaso Jobodwana during the mens 4x100 relay heats at teh Commonwealth Games on Friday. Photo: EPA/DEAN LEWINS

Published Apr 13, 2018

Share

BRISBANE - Team SA's Colleen Piketh and Nicolene Neal missed out on a gold medal in the women's pairs competition as they went down 15-14 to Malaysia's Emma Firyana and Sita Zalina Ahmad in a thrilling final on day nine of the Commonwealth Games on Friday.

The South Africans went into the match unbeaten in the competition and seemed to have the match under control as they led 13-7 after 14 ends, but then dropped 4 shots on the 15th end and another 3 on the 17th end to allow the Malaysians to gain the advantage.

This was Neal's second silver medal of the competition after being a part of the national fours team that finished as runners-up, while Piketh also won a bronze medal in the singles event earlier in the week.

READ MORE: Team SA add six more to #GC2018 medal tally

Piketh is no stranger to Commonwealth medals, having won gold with the national fours team at the 2014 Commonwealth showpiece in Glasgow.

Meanwhile, Team SA's 4x100 metres relay team of Henricho Bruintjies, Anaso Jobodwana, Clarence Munyai and Akani Simbine comfortably booked their place in the final of their discipline.

The SA unit won their qualifier in 38.71 secs to progress to the Saturday's final. Gold in this event will mean the world to Jobodwana in particular after the sprinter was unlucky to be disqualified in the semifinal of the 200 metres on Wednesday.

In the javelin competition, it took Phil-Mar van Rensburg just one throw to advance to Saturday's final, with the instrument landing at the 78.00 metres mark to place him in fourth position in qualifying competition.

Australian Hamish Peacock produced the morning's best qualifying distance of 81.22.

South Africa’s Terry van Rensburg lost to Nigeria’s Amas Daniel in the men’s freestyle wrestling quarterfinal on Friday morning. Van Rensburg was dispatched 9-0 in a points decision.

In the men’s freestyle 97kg division, SA’s Martin Erasmus defeated Samuel Belkin of New Zealand by virtue or a technical superiority decision, amassing a total of 10 technical points.

He then went on to beat Aussie Nicolaas Verreynne in the quarters and Canada’s Jordan Steen in the semi-finals to set up a gold-medal match against India’s Mausam Khatri.

Team SA's hockey teams found themselves on the end of negative results in their playoff matches on Friday. The national men's team ended 10th in the competition after losing their playoff match 3-2 to Wales at the Gold Coast Hockey Centre.

READ MORE: Ntutu and Langenhoven give SA a second gold-silver double in T12 sprint

Dayaam Cassiem and Ryan Crowe got on to the score-sheet for the South Africans, but it was not enough to see off the Welsh who scored a goal in each of the second, third and fourth quarters.

Team SA's women's team finished 6th overall at the Games, as they slipped to a 3-1 defeat to Canada in their playoff match. Candice Manuel got the solitary South African goal in the fourth quarter.

All three South Africans qualified for the women’s 1m springboard final on Friday's Day 9's morning session at the Commonwealth Games at the Gold Coast, Australia.

The trio are all based around the United States at various colleges and universities.

Rio Olympian Julia Vincent was best on the morning, her score of 260.95 making her third-best qualifier behind two Australian divers. 

Nicole Gillis (231.90) and Micaela Bouter (230.75) were 10th and 11th and will also compete on Friday evening.

African News Agency (ANA)

Like us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter

Related Topics: