By Mark Etheridge in London
He left it late before qualifying for the final but when it counted 2008 Olympic silver medallist long jumper Khotso Mokoena failed to make the mark at the 2012 Games on Saturday night.
Mokoena opened up encouragingly enough with a 7.93 metre effort which left him third after round one of six.
But that’s as good as it got on the night and that was his best attempt which saw him ending eighth of the 12 finalists.
He had a red flag on his second attempt and then a below-par 7.62 with his third jump.
And that was that for the man who went into the final pumped up and going for gold after an 8.02 qualifying jump on Friday (achieved with the last of three qualifing jumps).
He followed his 7.62m third round with a hat-trick of three red-flags and left the competition failing to break the 8m barrier. At last year’s world championships in South Korea he failed to make the final.
The gold medal went to Briton Greg Rutherford with an 8.31m jump on this fourth attempt.
Mokoena’s silver medal distance in Beijing four years ago was 8.24.
Going into the final only three of the 12 qualifiers, Sebastian Bayer (Germany), Briton Rutherford and American Marquise Mokoena, had better season-best distances than Mokoena. And only Bayer and Aussie Mitchell Watt had ever jumped further than the South African.
Next up for Team South Africa is the trio of Rene Kalmer, Irvette van Blerk and Tanith Maxwell in the women’s marathon on Sunday morning.