By GARY LEMKE
When Team SA’s men’s 4x100m medley quartet rightly celebrated joyously after winning gold in the final event of the swimming programme at the 13th African Games in Accra, they did so knowing they’d put an emphatic exclamation mark to the code’s performance this week.
On an evening when Georgia Els, Catherine van Rensburg and the men’s and women’s 4x100m medley relay teams claimed gold, and Caitlin de Lange, Clayton Jimmie and Andrew Ross chipped in with silver,Matthew Caldwell’s bronze made all the difference.
Why? Well, Team SA closed off the swimming part of the African Games in Ghana as the most successful nation in the pool. In doing so they accumulated 46 medals, which beats, by one, the number of medals they took from the 12th African Games, held in Morocco in 2019.
Catherine van Rensburg’s dominating display in the women’s 800m freestyle meant that she made a clean sweep of the 200, 400m and 800m freestyle events, while also standing at the top of the podium after the women’s 400m IM earlier in the week.
Without taking the relays into account – and Team SA picked up six of those golds during the programme – Van Rensburg secured four individual golds and a bronze to give her five medals. That made her the most successful Team SA swimmer at these Games and she also has a couple of relay medals to declare when she walks through customs on her arrival back at OR Tambo International.
Swimming’s 46 medals comprised 17 gold, 16 silver and 13 bronze and an incredible 16 different swimmers won two individual medals or more.
In delivering eight more medals, to go with the heartbreaking silver earned by the Team SA women’s cricket team, Team SA claimed nine medals in total on the night, which lifted them from 77 after starting the day on 68. With plenty more codes still to compete – athletics hasn’t started their programme as yet – the country is only nine medals short of equalling the tally recorded in Morocco in 2019.
Swim team captain Andrew Ross, who himself earned three individual medals, said it was “an incredible week”.
“It’s difficult to put into words what we have achieved here. We had some really big boots to fill, given previous African Games teams have included the likes of Chad, Tatjana, Kaylene and Erin, and to finish how we did was incredible.
“Befiore we left for Ghana we were already a tight group and there’s a mixture of youth and experienced. Clayton Jimmie has been inspirational as a mentor and a leader in the team. Every single member played their part. It’s not always about medals, it’s also about supporting, chipping in and even reaching finals.
“To be able to come here and do what we did is an honour and a privilege. The future of South African swimming is bright!”
Photo by Roger Sedres in Accra
Pictured: 4x100m medley gold medallists: Jonah Pool-Jones, Petrus Truter, Jatden Eaton, Clayton Jimmie