Team SA still ahead in Abuja
Brad Morgan
13 October 2003
After the weekend's exertions, South Africa had extended its lead at the All Africa Games, boosting its medal haul to 90 in total, made up of 39 gold, 27 silver and 24 bronze medals. Nigeria, in second place, had closed the gap, but with 60 medals in total and 26 golds, was still some way back.
But with the focus shifting to athletics in the final week of competition, Team SA will have its work cut out to maintain its lead.
The host country was boosted by strong performances in powerlifting, wrestling, badminton and table tennis, but South Africa excelled in swimming and gymnastics, with South Africa's women totally dominating in the pool.
Egypt too continues to perform well. Although the North Africans have won fewer gold medals than Nigeria, they are ahead of the West Africans in terms of total medals won. In 1999 they were second behind South Africa, and in 1995 they won the same number of medals as the South Africans, but picked up
fewer gold and silver medals.
So expect Egypt to finish strongly and push South Africa and Nigeria hard for first and second spot.
Swimming stars
Swimming was dominated by South Africa with every single gold medal on offer in the women's events going the way of South African swimmers, with Lauren Roets leading the way with a personal haul of six gold medals. Roets completed her medal haul by anchoring the four by 100 metres medley relay team to an All Africa Games record of 4:11.37.
Ingrid Haiden excelled in the 50 metres breaststroke, an event in which South Africa has an excellent record, by winning in a Games record time of 32.89, while Romy Altmann also bettered the previous record when she won the 200 metres backstroke in 2:15.15.
It wasn't just the South African women that claimed records, however. Stephan Ackermann lowered the mark in the 50 metres butterfly to 24.79, cracking 25 seconds for the first time ever.
Ackermann dedicated his win to renowned Durban coach Graham Hill, a former multiple South African champion and one of the country's best and most successful coaches. Hill, who has coached Penny Heyns and Terence Parkin, among others, suffered a heart attack on Thursday evening.
Lize-Mari Retief added to her collection with gold in the 200 metres butterfly and silver in the 200 metres backstroke, while Velia van Rensburg claimed gold in the 1 500 metres in a Games record time. Disabled swimmer Natalie du Toit, again competing in an able-bodied event, ended fourth. Last week, Du Toit took gold in the 800 metres freestyle.
Badminton success, soccer upset
South African badminton players also showed up well. Michelle Edwards and Chantelle Botts won the women's doubles, while Edwards finished runner-up in the singles event. Edwards won a further silver medal in the final of the mixed doubles with Stewart Carson, while the title went to
another South African pair, Chris Dednam and Antionette Uys.
Dednam also enjoyed success in the men's singles, picking up bronze. He teamed with Johan Kleingeld to win bronze in the doubles too. Antoinette Uys and Marike Daubern also took bronze in the women's doubles.
In soccer, the South African men's team failed to qualify for the semi-finals after falling 2-1 to Zambia, but the women's team caused one of the upsets of the tournament when they convincingly beat a highly fancied Cameroon side 3-1.
Veronica Phewe set the side on course for a title showdown against Nigeria with a superb chip over Cameroon goalkeeper Matilde Nguiadem. She then set Antonia Carelse up for the second, before Cameroon pulled one back through Christiane Mbida. Portia Modise, though, made sure of the points with a third goal for South Africa.
The only two South African tennis players in Abuja, Raven Klaasen and WP Meyer, moved comfortably in the quarterfinals of both the singles
and doubles competitions.
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