Jo-Ané van Dyk became only the second South African woman to claim an Olympic medal in javelin when she claimed the silver at the Paris Games on Saturday night.
The 26-year-old from Potchefstroom, who is a Registered Dietitian, emulated Sunette Viljoen-Louw, who also finished second at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Viljoen-Louw produced a 64.92m throw at the time, and last night, Van Dyk pulled off an excellent 63.93m effort in the third round to move up to second place.
Van Dyk opened the night with 59.72m, and then improved to 61.72m in the second round.
The South African star would have been eyeing the 64.22m distance that she threw in the qualification round in Paris to reach the final, and she stayed cool under pressure to come up with a strong 63.93m in round three to shift into a silver-medal position.
Van Dyk had a no throw in round four, 62.07m in round five and 57.07m in the final round.
But Mzansi will be overjoyed with Van Dyk’s performance, as she increased Team South Africa’s medal tally to six, following swimmer Tatjana Smith’s gold and silver, the athletics men’s 4x100m relay team’s silver, and the bronze medals claimed by the Blitzboks rugby team and mountain-biker Alan Hatherly.
Japan’s Haruka Kitaguchi claimed the lead in the first round already with a 65.80m throw, and was never challenged again to claim the women’s javelin gold medal.
Nikola Ogrodnikova of Czechia grabbed the bronze with a third-round throw of 63.68m.
South Africans had more reason to be proud later on the track, as the men’s 4x400m relay set a new national record of 2:58.12 to finish fifth in the final.
Gardeo Isaacs clocked 45.70 in the opening leg, but was in last place of nine from lane one, but then Zakithi Nene upped the tempo with a superb 43.80 to move SA into fifth place.
Lythe Pillay then kept up with the rest of the field to maintain fifth spot with a 44.00 effort, and Antonie Nortjé gave it his all on the home straight to run 44.70.
The United States claimed the honours in a new Olympic record 2:54.43, with Rai Benjamin holding off Botswana sensation Letsile Tebogo on the final leg.
Botswana, though, grabbed the silver medal with a 2:54.53 African record, while Great Britain secured the bronze with an area record of 2:55.83.
Belgium edged out South Africa for fourth spot in a new national record of 2:57.75.
In the men’s high jump final, 20-year-old South African Brian Raats would have had high hopes of improving his personal best mark of 2.26m, following a superb 2.24m effort in the qualification round.
The University of Pretoria athlete started confidently enough, clearing 2.17m with his very first attempt of the night.
Raats, who claimed a silver medal at the 2022 world junior championships in Colombia, then saw the bar raised to 2.22m – but he was unable to reach that height in three jumps, and was knocked out of the competition.
However, the former rugby player – who stands at 1.93m – will be delighted with his overall performance, and will look to improve over the next few years ahead of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
Two other highlights of the track action last night were the women’s 1 500m final, as well as the men’s 800m final, which required a photo finish to determine the winner.
Kenyan star Faith Kipyegon clinched the gold medal for a third Games in a row in the 1 500m title decider, setting a new Olympic record of 3:51.29 – beating her own mark of 3:53.11, which she ran in Tokyo in 2021.
Kipyegon is also the world record-holder with 3:49.04, which she produced in Paris in July this year, and she defended the Olympic title that she first won at Rio 2016.
The 30-year-old also secured a silver medal in the 5 000m at the Paris Games.
In the men’s 800m, Kenya’s 20-year-old star Emmanuel Wanyonyi grabbed the gold medal in a new personal best of 1:41.19 – which was not far off countryman David Rudisha’s world record 1:40.91 – as he held off Canada’s Marco Arop – who was born in Sudan – in a thrilling finish.
Arop claimed the silver in 1:41.20, which was a new area record, while Algerian star Djamel Sedjati had to settle for the bronze in 1:41.50.