Team SA had started Monday with nine medals at the 2026 Commonwealth Games – with all coming from the Tollcross Internationals Swimming Centre. There were two more that came midway through the evening session, again in the pool, with Erin Gallagher taking a 100m butterfly bronze, followed minutes later by Michael Houlie’s 50m breaststroke silver. Spare a thought for young Chris Smith, who missed out on a bronze medal by 0.01sec in the same race.
ATHLETICS
Men’s 100m, round 1: Bradley Nkoana won his heat in 10.16sec to get his campaign off to a smooth start and progressed to the semi-finals as 10th fastest. Cheswill Johnson also won his heat, in 10.21, to also join the 17 semi-finalists, in 15th position. Gift Leotlela was given a bye into the semi-finals.
Men’s 110mH, round 1: Franco le Roux finished 4th in his heat in 13.64 and was made to wait before going into the final as a fastest qualifier. His time was 6th quickest overall heading into the final.
Men’s 110mH, final: Franco le Roux finished 4th in13.53, with Jamaica’s Demario Prince claiming gold in 13.17.
Women’s 800m, round 1, heat 4 (7.25pm): Prudence Sekgodiso squeezed into the semi-finals as a fastest non-automatic qualifier. She finished 4th in her heat in 2:03.84.
PARA ATHLETICS
Women’s T38 100m: Sheryl James finished 4th in her heat in 13.94 and qualified for the final as a ‘next fastest’ outside of the first three. Liezel Gouws finished 5th in her heat in 14.24 and didn’t progress to the evening final. James then finished 8th in the final in 14.08.
BOXING
Women’s flyweight, 51kg, round of 16: Thandolwethu Mathiba lost on points over three rounds to Ruby White of England. The judges scored the fight by four and five points. Mathiba was knocked down in both the first and second rounds.
GYMNASTICS
Men’s floor final: Daniel McLean finished 5th with a total of 12.933 points. Gold was won with 14.566, silver with 13.966 and bronze with 13.433. He earned 4.500 points for difficulty and 8.433 for execution.
LAWN BOWLS
Men’s singles, Section B, Round 6: Wayne Rittmuller won his match against Frederrick Tafatu (Niue) in two sets, 7-6, 8-4. That leaves him in 2nd spot in the section, with one match remaining, but he’s unable to catch table-topper Gary Kelly and is out of medals contention.
Men’s singles, Section B, Round 7: Wayne Rittmuller lost his final pool match to the formidable Gary Kelly of Northern Ireland 2-0, going down 14-4 and 9-3.
SWIMMING
Men’s 200m butterfly, heats: Kris Mihaylov touched the wall in 2nd place in his heat in 1:58.12, which placed him 4th overall on the list of qualifiers heading into the final. Jarden Eaton was 5th in his heat in 2:07.09, for 14th overall and missing out on the evening final.
Men’s 200m butterfly, final: Kris Mihaylov felt he’d let himself down a touch after touch in 7th place in the final in 1:58.02. Gold was won in 1:55.05. At age 18 he was by a long margin the youngest finalist in the field and showed up well for the first half of the race, going through the first 100m in 3rd place.
Men’s 100m freestyle, heats: Guy Brooks finished 4th in his heat in 49.86 to qualify for the semi-finals as 15th fastest. Pieter Coetze withdrew from the event, to concentrate on his 100m backstroke assignment.
Men’s 100m freestyle, semi-finals: Guy Brooks finished 7th in his race in 49.29 and missed out on a place in the final but was satisfied with his swim, adding “it’s right on my PB”.
SILVER! Men’s 50m breaststroke, final: Pre-race favourite Michael Houlie led for 40 metres in a thrilling battle, before he was touched off by Australia’s Sam Williamson, who took gold in 26.50. Houlier kept the breaststroke legend Adam Peaty-Ramsay, at bay to take 2nd in 26.77. The Englishman was 3rd in 26.94. Chris Smith was only 0.01 behind Peaty-Ramsay in fourth, showing the fine lines that operate at elite level sport.
Women’s 50m backstroke, heats: Olivia Nel followed up her bronze medal performance from Sunday night by finishing 4th in her heat in 28.22, which qualified her for the semi-finals in 6th position. Jessica Thompson chased home Australia’s Iona Anderson to finished 2nd in her heat in 28.56. She qualified for the semi-finals as 7th fastest overall. Hannah Pearse won her race in 30.12, which left her outside the semi-final positions at 21st overall.
Women’s 50m backstroke, semi-finals: Olivia Nel is another Team SA swimmer having a fine Games and she finished 2nd in her semi-final in 28.12 to qualify 4th fastest for the final. For Jessica Thompson there was deep disappointment after her 4th place 28.54 left her outside the final eight by 0.04 sec.
Women’s 50m breaststroke, heats: Defending champion from Birmingham 2022, Lara van Niekerk opened up by winning her heat in 30.23 and go into the evening semi-finals as the fastest qualifier. Her Commonwealth Games record is 29.73. Kaylene Corbett finished 3rd in her heat in 31.54 to comfortably qualify for the semi-finals in 8th overall. Rebecca Meder also finished 3rd in her heat in 31.67 and progressed to the semi-finals at 9th on the timesheets.
Women’s 50m breaststroke, semi-finals: Lara van Niekerk won her semi-final on 30.63 to qualify 2nd fastest for the final, and sets such high expectations of herself that she said she needs to go back and look “at where I got a few things wrong”. The world will be on watch for the final. Rebecca Meder will join her in the final, after her 31.53 swim placed her 8th fastest overall, while Kaylene Corbett will be smacking her lips in anticipation of her preferred 200m after her 31.60 left her 9th overall, just missing out on the final.
Women’s 100m freestyle, final: Caitlyn de Lange finished 8th in 55.52, with Australia completing a 1-2-3 clean sweep of the medals.
BRONZE! Women’s 100m butterfly, final: Erin Gallagher was understandably elated after holding on to take the bronze medal, finishing 0.01 sec ahead of Australia’s Brittany Castelluzzo. Gallagher is having a red-hot Games and went out fast behind the dominant Aussie Alex Perkins (56.38). She was hauled in by Keanna Macinnes (57.33) in the drive to the line but dug deep to take the medal in 57.39.
Women’s 4x200m freestyle: Team SA (Dune Coetzee, Georgia Nel, Hannah Robertson, Hannah Pearse) finished 6th in 8:09.16, ahead of Wales and Cayman Islands. Australia won by over 7sec in 7:42.53, with England edging NZ for the other medals.
WEIGHTLIFTING
Women’s 58kg: Johanni Taljaard finished on the brink of the medals, in 4th place in the one-off final. She had a snatch result of 78kg and a clean & jerk of 97kg for a total of 175kg. Gold was won with a Games record 206kg, silver was 199kg and bronze 178kg.
Women’s 58kg, final: Anneke Spies-Burger finished 7th with a total of 178kg. She had a score of 77kg and 101kg.
Men’s 79kg, final: Jon-Antohein Phillips finished out of the medals with a snatch of 119kg and clean & jerk of 167kg for a combined 287kg.
WHEELCHAIR BASKETBALL
Women’s 3×3, Pool A: Team SA (Aviwe Ngoni, Asive Gilifile, Michelle Moganedi, Ongezwa Hagu) wrapped up their Games campaign with a 21-2 loss to England. Their other two pool defeats were 19-3 against Canada and 20-5 versus Australia.
Men’s 3×3, Pool B: Team SA (Zakhele Shelembe, Xola Yalezo, Shane Williams, Simanga Mbhele) beat Malaysia 13-10. That leaves them in temporary 2nd in their pool. They will qualify for the semi-finals if Scotland beat Wales in the final pool match. In that event, Team SA would meet England in the semi-finals.
Photo of Bradley Nkoana by Nic Bothma/Team SA