Team SA started Wednesday with 16 medals at the 2026 Commonwealth Games – with all coming in the pool at the Tollcross Internationals Swimming Centre. They looked to have a realistic chance of a handful more in the evening’s finals. It all happened quickly. In the first final of the night, Pieter Coetze completed the backstroke clean sweep, with Ruard van Renen winning bronze in the same 100m race. And then Kaylene Corbett stepped up to take silver in the women’s 200m breaststroke. That set the stage for Christiaan Sadie to take gold in the S7 50m freestyle, and he delivered, in his second Games record of the day.
What followed was the stuff of dreams. Boom! Bronze in the women’s 4x100m medley, Boom! Bronze in the men’s 4x100m medley, with Pieter Coetze ripping another Games record. Thrown in there was Chad le Clos’s 21st Games medal. It was also Team SA’s 22nd medal in Glasgow.
ATHLETICS
Men’s 200m, round 1: Mvuyo Moss finished 3rd in his heat in 21.02 which wasn’t fast enough to progress him into the semi-finals.
Men’s 400mH, round 1: Sabelo Dlamini finished 5th in his heat in 50.68, which placed him 14th overall and missing out on a place in the final.
Men’s one mile, round 1: Tshepo Tshite finished 5th in a heat that included the new world record holder in the mile, Josh Kerr. Tshite’s time of 3:59.52 was a season’s best and he automatic qualifier into the final.
Men’s shot put, qualifying: Aiden Smith produced three consistent attempts of 19.65m, 19.31m and 19.86m to qualify for the 12-man final in 7th. Only 14cm covered athletes from 2nd to 7th in qualifying.
Women’s 800m, semi-finals: Prudence Sekgodiso finished 7th in her heat in 2:01.57, which left her at 11th on the overall timesheets and a surprise absentee from the final. She stuck in 5th position around the first lap, taking the bell in 57.8, but was unable to kick on. Only 2.18 seconds covered the first 11 fastest times.
Women’s shot put, final: Ashley Erasmus placed 10th. She started out with a distance of 14.83m, and was unable to better that in her subsequent attempts.
PARA ATHLETICS
Men’s T12 100m round 1: Masala Makatu finished 2nd in his heat in 11.05 and qualified 2nd fastest for the final. Jaco Smit won his heat in 11.11 and qualified 3rd fastest for the final. The final field is limited to 4 para athletes, so Team SA is assured of at least one medal.
Men’s T47 100m final: Collen Mahlalela pulled out a season’s best 11.31, which gave him 6th place.
Women’s F42-F44/F61-F64 discus, final: Yane van der Merwe produced a season’s best throw of 30.91m, which placed her 7th overall. Her best effort came in her attempt.
BOXING
Women’s 70kg, quarter-finals: Samukelisiwe Ncube was beaten when the referee stopped the contest 2:40 into the 2nd round. Ncube had been knocked down twice by 2022 gold medallist Rosie Eccles of Wales and afterwards she said that she was grateful for the chance to be at the Games and had learned a lot.
LAWN BOWLS
Women’s singles, Section C, Round 1: Bridget Herselman opened her campaign with a strong win over Zambia’s Mildred Mkandawire, 13-1, 8-4. Herselman, in her second Commonwealth Games and who carried Team SA’s flag at the opening ceremony, had jumped out to a 10-0 lead after the first four ends (there are seven in each set). In the second set she briefly fell behind, (3-4) after five ends, but gathered herself to take control again.
Women’s singles, Section C, Round 2: Bridget Herselman lost 2-0 to Amy Williams of Wales, going down 6-3, 6-3. She started both sets by conceding two shots at the first end.
Men’s Pairs, Section C, Round 1: Jason Evans and Paul White got off to a winning start when they beat the Norfolk Islands’ pair of Jeht Nobbs and Michael Trickey 4-2, 7-0. Both sets are played over five ends and the Team SA duo began both sets by picking up two shots on the first end.
Men’s Pairs, Section C, Round 2 (8.40pm): Team SA (Jason Evans, Paul White) went down on a tie-break to Canada (John Bezear, Ryan Bester). Team SA lost the first set 7-0, rebounded to level things, 5-4, but lost the tie-break shootout 1-0.
NETBALL
Pool A: Team SA went down 57-47 and now have a straight fight with England on Thursday to decide who goes through to the semi-finals. Three of the four quarters were desperately close: The first was edged 14-13 by Australia, the third was 14-13 to Team SA and the fourth quarter was shared 12-12. The second quarter is where the game was won and lost – 18-8 to the Aussies.
PARA LAWN BOWLS
Para Men’s Pairs B6-B8, Section A, round 2: Team SA (Kurt Smith, Mark Noble) split the two ends with New Zealand 2-5, 5-4 but lost 1-0 on the tie-break.
SWIMMING
Men’s 200m freestyle, heats: Guy Brooks finished 8th in his heat in 2:01.94, while Kris Mihaylov was 5th in his heat in 1:50.01. Neither progressed to the final, with Mihaylov 16th overall and Brooks 33rd.
Women’s 200m breaststroke, heats: Aimee Canny was the first Team SA swimmer in the water today and won her heat in 2:27.05. Kaylene Corbett also won her heat, in 2:27.32. Rebecca Meder was 4th in the same heat in 2:29.96. All qualified for the semi-finals, in 3rd, 4th and 8th overall, respectively.
SILVER! Women’s 200m breaststroke, final: Kaylene Corbett has swum faster, but this is a race that she will forever remember after going one better than her 2022 bronze medal with a heroic silver behind Scotland’s Angharaad Evans. Corbett came on strongly in the second half to clock 2:24.46. Aimee Canny finished 5th in 2:25.05, with Rebecca Meder 8th in 2:30.25.
Women’s 200m butterfly, heats: Dune Coetzee finished 5th in her heat in 2:18.85 which made her the first reserve for the final.
Women’s 4x100m medley, heats: Team SA (Jessica Thompson, Lara van Niekerk, Erin Gallagher and Georgia Nel) finished 2nd in their heat behind Canada in 4:08.34 to qualify for the final as 6th fastest.
Men’s 4x100m medley, heats: Team SA (Ruard van Reenen, Chris Smith, Jarden Eaton and Guy Brooks) finished 2nd behind Australia in 3:38.98 to qualify 3rd fastest for the final where Chad le Clos replaced Eaton in a bid to earn a historic 21st Commonwealth Games medal.
GOLD and SILVER! Men’s 100m backstroke, final: Pieter Coetze stopped the clock in yet another Games record, his sixth of these championships. This time it was 51.77, which now puts him only 0.17sec outside of the world record. Ruard van Renen bagged another bronze, in 53.31.
Women’s 50m freestyle, final: Caitlyn de Lange and Jessica Thompson come up against a wall of Australians who completed the 1-2-3 podium sweep. De Lange finished 5th in 24.98 and Thompson was 6th in 25.06.
Men’s 50m butterfly, final: Calvyn Justus came home in 7th position in 23.53, with Australia claiming another 1-2-3, led by Kyle Chalmers in 22.73.
BRONZE! Women’s 4x100m medley, final: Team SA (Olivia Nel, Aimee Canny, Erin Gallagher and Rebecca Meder) turned it on to take the bronze medal, with Meder bringing it home in an African record 3:58.58.
BRONZE! Men’s 4x100m medley, final: Team SA (Pieter Coetze, Michael Houlie, Chad le Clos and Ruard van Renen). Coetze went out under world record pace for the first 50m and that set the tone for the rest to follow. They led after 100m, and after 150m. Australia came hard, as did England, but Van Renen closed it out in 3:31.13, an African record.
PARA SWIMMING
Men’s S7 50m freestyle, heats: Christian Sadie won his heat in a Games record 28.45sec to qualify for the evening final as the gold medal favourite.
GOLD! Men’s S7 50m freestyle, final: Christian Sadie surged to his first Commonwealth Games gold medal, clocking his second Games record of the day, with a 28.06 winning time.
WEIGHTLIFTING
Men’s 94kg, final: Nicholaas du Plooy was unable to record a weight, having missed three attempts at 132kg in the snatch. “I’ll be back and will be trying to qualify for the next Commonwealth Games,” he said.
Women’s 86kg, final: Cheyenne Smith produced results of 86kg (snatch) and 100kg (clean & jerk) for a total of 186kg, which left her in 10th place.
Photo: ANTON GEYSER/Team SA