Team SA’s medals tally moved into double figures on Friday at the African Youth Games, having started the day on six but steadily adding to the total throughout the day, writes Mark Lemke in Luanda.
By the end of Friday’s proceedings another 20 medals had been added to the total, taking it to 28 comprising 11 golds, nine silvers and eight bronzes. Swimming had collected 10 medals on their opening day in the pool, athletics increased to 11, with karate boosting their return to six and cycling having the one so far.
Matao le Roux (high jump) and Joshua Gerber (discus) had won the first two golds on Thursday, but another field athlete, Jacobus van der Merwe, produced the third gold of the Games, and the third for athletics, when he won the javelin. Then, Micah Africa cronwsd himself as the fastest athlete at the Games when winning the boys 100m.
However, it all came to life under the lights in the evening sessions at both the athletics and swimming. Athletics added six golds and three silvers to their two golds of Thursday and swimming also cashed in.
In athletics, Jaydon Fairlie and Jayden Fourie won gold before Megan Nieman and Anri Rautenbach also got in the act for the girls. In the pool, Abigail Kotze won gold and silver, while Nichoals Pretorius also doubled up with a silver and bronze.
ATHLETICS
Heats
Boys 100m: Africa Micah won his heat in 10.59 and was fastest qualifier
Boys 400m: Jaydon Fairlie won his heat in 49.87
Girls 100m: Oluchi Ndubueze finished 2nd in her heat in 12.12
Finals
Boys 100m: GOLD! Africa Micah won in 10.67
Boys 400m: GOLD! Jaydon Fairlie finished 1st
Boys 1500m: Emile Els finished 4th in 3:54.69
Boys 2000m steeplechase: Jade Doran finished 4th in 7:11.66
Boys javelin: GOLD! Jacobus van der Merwe won with a distance of 69.39m
Boys long jump: GOLD! Jayden Fourie finished 1st with a leap of 7.59m
Girls 100m: SILVER! Oluchi Ndubueze finished 2nd
Girls 3000m: Minke Dekker finished 5th in 9:58.41
Girls 100mH: GOLD! Megan Nieman finished 1st
Girls high jump: GOLD! Anri Rautenbach finished 1st with a height of 1.75m
Girls discus: SILVER! Johanna Lamprecht
Girls javelin: SILVER! Nicola van der Merwe
BADMINTON
Boys singles, round of 32: Ricardo Vigario lost 2-0 to Mauritius
Girls singles, round of 32: Layla Niayesh lost 2-0 to Egypt
Boys singles, round of 16: Misha Bredell beat Burundi 2-0
Girls singles, round of 16: Chloe Lai beat Nigeria 2-0
Boys doubles, round of 16: Vigario/Bredell beat Mauritius 2-0
BEACH VOLLEYBALL
Beach Volleyball coach, Koali Possa, was full of praise following the round of 16 matches, “I am very happy with how the teams performed today. The conditions were tough with the heat and wind. The girls fought hard, but it wasn’t to be, and the boys did well to come back from a bad start in the groups. We are looking forward to the quarter final tomorrow.”
Team SA boys beat Mauritius 2-0 to qualify for quarter-finals
Team SA girls lost 2-0 to Algeria in Rd of 16
KARATE
Junior ladies kumite +66kg: BRONZE! Sahastra Ramataha
Junior ladies team kata: SILVER! Jenna Atkinson, Yathiksha Sewpersad, Farah Seedat
Junior male kumite -55kg: SILVER! Shivaan Ramdhial
SWIMMING
Heats
Boys 100m freestyle: Nicholas Pretorius was 2nd fastest in 53.94 and Kyle Snyders 5th in 55.37
Boys 200m butterfly: Nicholas Pretorius was 3rd fastest in 2:13.94
Girls 100m freestyle: Abigail Kotze was fastest in 59.47, with Gizelle Maritz 2nd fastest in 59.87
Girls 200m butterfly: Abigail Kotze was fastest in 2:22.20 and Jemmah Roman was 2nd fastest in 2:29.82
Mixed 4x100m freestyle: Team SA (Nicholas Pretorius, Bailey Lambert, Eric Kotze and Gizelle Maritz were fastest in 3:46.43)
Finals
Boys 100m freestyle: SILVER! N
Boys 200m butterfly: BRONZE! N
Girls 100m freestyle: GOLD! Ab
Girls 200m butterfly: SILVER!
Girls 1500m freestyle: GOLD! L
Boys 800m freestyle: SILVER! Roelof Bartleman and BRONZE! Kellen Jones
Mixed 4x100m freestyle: GOLD! Team SA
Photo: Frennie Shivambu