By GARY LEMKE
It was a magnificent seven medals for Team SA at the Commonwealth Youth Games on Tuesday, with three golds, a silver and three bronzes going into the vault. That took the overall tally to 12 medals, with half of them being gold.
Athletics continued to rake in the medals, with Alicia Khunou becoming Team SA’s first double gold medallist at these Games when she added the women’s discus title to her shot put victory of 24 hours earlier.
Henru Lamberts upgraded from silver in the discus to gold in the shot put, and Daniel Molobela won gold in the para athletics men’s discus. while Temoso Masikane continued the success story of South African men’s long jumpers when he claimed silver.
Just for good measure swimmers Kian Keylock and Jarden Eaton claimed bronze medals, while the men’s rugby team atoned for defeats to Scotland and Fiji by again routing Canada in their bronze medal match.
Lamberts was delighted with his gold in the shot put, which he attained with a Commonwealth Youth Games record of 20.17m. “I felt great after the warm up and in the competition I tried my best so stay focused on my technique, and not to worry about the distance. My next goal is to make the team for the Junior Worlds.
“I broke the CYG record by 5cm, and it was always a goal to be able to put my name in the record books and I hope the record stands for many years,” he added.
Molobela also became a gold medallist with a throw of 26.34m in the men’s discus F42-44/F61-64 final. The 17-year-old said that the medal was “a lifetime achievement. It’s my first international medal. With hard work comes great results,” he said.
“Going forward I would like to see myself become a big name in world para athletics, and leave a great impact on that. My favourite subject at school is mathematics, because it gets my brain going and working. I want to become an entrepreneur and a self-made millionaire.” Few would bet against that happening to the likeable teenager.
“I learned a lot about myself tonight,” said Masikane, a Grade 11 student at Lebone College in Rustenburg. “Getting this silver allows me to stay grounded. Going forward I want to study aviation and in my athletics career I want to stick to the long jump and become an Olympic champion.”
Photos by Roger Sedres