South Africa’s Paige Badenhorst crossed the finish line in a time of 7:55.91 as she won her women’s singles sculls semi-final, booking her place in Saturday morning’s C final.
As a result, Badenhorst will be racing for 13th place in the women’s singles sculls.
In the men’s pair semi-final A/B, Team SA’s John Smith and Christopher Baxter narrowly missed out on a place in the A final after finishing fourth in a time of 6:40.35.
The breaststroke double is on for Team SA’s Tatjana Smith
With the 100m breaststroke gold medal already in the bag, Tatjana Smith began the 200m in impressive fashion as she won her heat in a time of 2:21.57.
Smith is looking to become only the second swimmer in history to complete a breaststroke double at the Olympics. The only other athlete to achieve the feat is South Africa’s Penny Heyns, who did so at the 1996 games in Atlanta.
And in second place, just behind Smith, was teammate Kaylene Corbett, who clocked 2:23.85 to qualify for the semi-finals.
Meanwhile, in the men’s 200m backstroke heats, Pieter Coetzee won his heat in a time of 1:56.92 to book his place in the semi-final.
Triathletes brave the heat and the pollution
In the men’s individual triathlon, Henri Schoeman, who won a surprise bronze medal at the 2016 games in Rio, finished in 20th place on Wednesday. James Riddle, South Africa’s other participant finished 25.
“It was very warm, with the race change we didn’t expect it to be this warm. I overexerted a little bit, but I gave it my best shot,” Schoeman said after the race.
In the women’s individual race, Vicky van der Merwe placed 46th in a time of 2:05.16 having been given a time penalty after the swimming leg.
“For me it was a tough day, I literally almost died in that swim,” Van der Merwe said after the race.
Another narrow loss for our hockey women
In the women’s hockey, South Africa went down 2-1 to Great Britain to suffer their third straight loss at the Paris Olympics.
Like the first two games, South Africa were first on the scoreboard, but just couldn’t hold on to their advantage.
After Kayla de Waal opened the scoring in the 6th minute, Amy Costello pulled one back for the British. A 42nd minute Hannah French strike was enough to give Britain the win.
South Africa have two games left, and will have to pick up maximum points if they’re to have a chance of reaching the quarter-finals.
They are up against Spain on Thursday, and then tackle the United States on Saturday. Realistically, these are both games South Africa, ranked 18th in the world, can win.
Still to come on Wednesday
Archery
Men’s individual 1/32 elimination round (7.16pm): Wiaan Roux vs Je Deok Kim (Kor)
Hockey
Men’s Pool A (7.45pm): South Africa vs Spain
Swimming
Men’s 200m backstroke, semi-finals (9.47pm): Pieter Coetze
Women’s 200m breaststroke semi-finals (10.03pm): Tatjana Smith, Kaylene Corbett
IOL Sport