South Africa’s golden boy Chad le Clos bombed out of the Tokyo Olympics yesterday, after he was eliminated from the 100m butterfly heats.
Chasing a fifth Olympic medal, Le Clos, who also missed out on a top-three place in the 200m event, finished sixth in his heat and was eliminated alongside fellow South African Matthew Sates, who finished fifth in his heat.
There was better luck for the ladies, as Tatjana Schoenmaker and Kaylene Corbett both won their 200m breaststroke semi-finals and by the time South Africans wake up Thursday, they could have added more medals to Team SA’s two silvers at 3.41am yesterday morning.
Also in pool, the men’s water polo side was thrashed 23-1, leaving them bottom of their six-team Group A.
In sailing, Leo Davis ended last in his dinghy finn division race 6, a result which left him rooted to the bottom of his classification.
On the golf course, there was more success from Christiaan Bezuidenhout tied for 12 at -3 after the first round at the Kasumigaseki Country Club, with his teammate Garrick Higgo level, eight strokes off leader Sepp Straka of Austria.
And there were tears of joy for the men’s hockey side, as they picked up their first win off the tournament.
Having lost their first three Pool B games in Tokyo, they managed to beat Germany 4-3 to move off the foot of the table.
Pleinster Mustapha Cassiem scored the winner as SA came back from 3-2 down in an emotional finish.