Team SA started Thursday with 22 medals at the 2026 Commonwealth Games – with all coming in the pool. There was one more medal on the day, in track and field, while the women’s netball team bowed out of medal contention, going down 58-54 to England.
In athletics the tempo increased inside the Scotstoun Stadium, home to rugby franchise the Glasgow Warriors in the evening session after some disappointing morning results. Aiden Smith finished fourth in the men’s shot put final, while Sinesipho Dambile stamped himself as men’s 200m gold medal favourite. The first medal arrived in the men’s T12 100m final through 20-year-old Masala Makutu, where Jaco Smit placed fourth. Marione Fourie was another finalist to finish fourth.
ATHLETICS
Men’s 200m, semi-final: Sinesipho Dambile, the fastest 200m athlete in the Games, produced a blistering 19.82sec performance, the second fastest time ever recorded in the Commonwealth Games, the record standing at 19.80. He goes into the final as a strong favourite. Mthi Mthimkulu ran 20.39 in his semi-final, finishing 4th, and then had to sit in the chair to await his fate as fastest loser. However, he missed out by two positions.
Men’s 400m, semi-finals: Lythe Pillay finished 4th in his heat in 45.87 and had to wait for the result of the remaining semi-finals to see if he had qualified for the final. He had narrowly missed out, despite being 8th fastest to Zakithi Nene who himself had a nervous wait after finishing 2nd in 45.70. He squeezed in, 7th, after taking a “fastest loser” slot.
Men’s javelin, qualifying: Douw Smit had a first qualifying throw of 80.64, followed by two unimportant no throws, because he’d done enough to qualify for the final, with the 3rd longest attempt overall.
Men’s shot put, final: Aiden Smith finished 4th with an effort of 20.31m, which came with his third heave. He had distances of 19.04m, 19.47m, 20.31m, 19.85m and 19.86m, which left him 68cm off the bronze medal.
Women’s 100m hurdles, round 1: Marione Fourie finished 2nd in her heat in 12.50 which qualified her 3rd fastest heading into the semi-finals.
Women’s 100m hurdles, final: Marione Fourie followed up her strong morning performance with a 12.66 timing in the final, admitting that while she would have preferred to win a bronze, she would bank the 4th place in the final and move forward. “I’m very hard on myself and I’m going to use this to work even harder,” she said.
Women’s One Mile, round 1: Karabo More finished 5th in a season’s best 4:37.97, which was 13th on the overall timesheets.
Women’s 400m, semi-finals: Marlie Viljoen finished 4th in her race in 52.99 which left her outside automatic qualification and 13th overall, which means she missed out on a place in the final.
Women’s 5000m, final: Tayla Kavanagh ran a personal best 15:48.49 to finished a creditable 8th, with Australia claiming a 1-2, Rose Davies winning gold in 14:44.53.
PARA ATHLETICS
GOLD! Men’s T12 100m final: The 20-year-old Masala Makatu produced the goods on the big stage to run a personal best 11.04sec and win Team SA’s first track and field medal at these Games. Jaco Smith finished 4th in 11.24.
LAWN BOWLS
Women’s singles, Section C, Round 3: Bridget Herselman beat Carol Whitehead (Isle Of Man) 2-0, with set ends of 7-5, 7-5. She trailed 4-0 after two ends in the second set but responded in style to get to 4-4 after five ends and then calmly closed things off. It leaves her in 3rd position after three of her five pool matches.
Men’s Pairs, Section C, Round 3: Team SA (Jason Evans, Paul White) beat Isle Of Man (Michael Collister, Mark McGreal) in two ends, 9-2, 5-4 to sit 3rd in their section halfway through the pool phase.
NETBALL
Pool A: Team SA lost 58-54 to England to bow out of medal contention. They started brightly, taking the first quarter 17-11, before England rallied. Half-time came with Team SA still ahead, 29-28, but England continued their momentum and extended their lead to four with a 15-10 quarter edge and then sharing the final 15min 15-all.
PARA LAWN BOWLS
Para Men’s Pairs B6-B8, Section A, round 3: Team SA (Gareth Reece-Gibbs, Jarid James) beat England 2-0, with set scores of 6-2, 9-6. Team SA are 4th after three rounds, behind Australia, Scotland and New Zealand.
WEIGHTLIFTING
Men’s 110kg+, final: Christoffel Rheeders placed 9th after posting 140kg in the snatch and 163kg in the clean & jerk for a total of 303kg. Gold was won with a Games record 389kg by New Zealand’s David Liti.
Photo: ANTON GEYSER/TeamSA