Olympics
By Lehlohonolo Lehana. @HirokoMasuike. The Tokyo Olympics, postponed and played out behind closed doors because of the Covid pandemic, concluded with an upbeat ceremony in Japan's capital. The Games took place without spectators and athletes were barred from venturing outside the Olympic village. Their staging has faced local opposition and…
By Lehlohonolo Lehana. The South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee, SASCOC,has announced that athlete Anaso Jobodwana has been named as the flagbearer for Team SA at the Closing Ceremony for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics on Sunday night. The ceremony will officially close the global sporting showpiece that started on…
Staff Reporter. Kenya's Eliud Kipchoge sealed back-to-back Olympic marathon titles.Photo Credit:AFP. Eliud Kipchoge says he has "fulfilled" his legacy after the Kenyan became the first athlete since 1980 to retain an Olympic marathon title at Tokyo 2020. Kipchoge, only the third person to win successive Olympic marathons, finished in two…
Staff Reporter. File:Gerda Steyn summits at 2700m in the 2017 Tignes Trail Race in France. Photo: Courtesy of Gerda Steyn. South Africa's top women produced a mixed bag of results in the longest of the distance running events at the Tokyo Olympic Games on Saturday. In the morning session, Gerda…
Staff Reporter. Tokyo 2020 Olympics - Soccer Football - Men - Gold medal match - Brazil v Spain - International Stadium Yokohama, Yokohama, Japan - August 7, 2021. Malcom of Brazil celebrates scoring their second goal with teammates. Stoyan Nenov. It took a goal deep in extra-time from super-sub Malcom…
By Lehlohonolo Lehana. @GettyImages. Allyson Felix overtook Carl Lewis as the most decorated American track and field athlete after helping Team USA to Olympic gold in the 4x400m relay. The 35-year-old had already become the most decorated female track and field Olympian ever with a bronze in the 400m on…
By Lehlohonolo Lehana. @ MichaelMadrid. Kawagoe,Japan - American Nelly Korda secured a one-shot victory on a dramatic final day of the women's golf competition. Three shots ahead overnight, Korda's lead was down to a single shot when play was suspended for 49 minutes because of a tropical storm with one…
Staff Reporter. @AP. Peres Jepchirchir won the women's marathon at Tokyo 2020 as Kenya claimed a one-two in sweltering conditions in Japan's northern city of Sapporo. Jepchirchir beat world record holder Brigid Kosgei in the closing stages to win in two hours 27 minutes 20 seconds. American Molly Seidel took…
Staff Reporter. @GettyImages. Team USA secured their fourth straight Olympic gold medal as they beat France 87-82 in Tokyo. Kevin Durant scored 29 points and joined Carmelo Anthony as the only three-time men's gold medallists in Olympic basketball history after the U.S. held off France 87-82 on Saturday morning in…
By Lehlohonolo Lehana. Kawagoe, Japan – So, the long and short of the women's Olympic golf competition heading into Saturday's final round at Kasumigaseki Country Club is this: American Nelly Korda and Aditi Ashok of India. It's the difference between the two 23-year-olds, leader Korda at 15-under par 198 and…
By Lehlohonolo Lehana. Delivering one of the best performances of the Games by the SA team, Kyle Blignaut put up a brave fight in the men's shot put final at the Tokyo Olympics on Thursday. Blignaut took sixth position with a 21.00m effort, just 21 centimetres short of his personal…
Staff Reporter. Michael McGlynn produced South Africa’s best Olympic 10km Marathon swim finish to date in Tokyo on Thursday, executing his race plan to perfection to finish in eighth place. The 21-year-old started slowly and was content to stay towards the back of the pack in the first half of…
By Lehlohonolo Lehana. Tokyo 2020 – Nelly Korda, daughter of former tennis player Petr, in the lead after the second round. Kawagoe, Japan – Following a day of more scorching temperatures, torrid rounds and a potential game-changing storm on the horizon, the fate of the women's Olympic golf tournament is…
By Lehlohonolo Lehana. Akani Simbine, Anaso Jobodwana, Henricho Bruintjies and Emile Erasmus.Photo Credit:Getty Images. South Africa's 4x100m relay team had an unfortunate mishap in their heat as they did not finish their race at the Tokyo Olympics on Thursday. The South African team, which consisted of Clarence Munyai, Shaun Maswanganyi, …
By Lehlohonolo Lehana. South Africa’s Water Polo teams left Tokyo on Wednesday having gained a great deal from their Olympic experience. While neither the men’s nor women’s team managed to claim a victory, they left the Japanese capital satisfied with their performances, considering they were up against fully professional sides,…
By Lehlohonolo Lehana. @MichaelMadrid. Kawagoe, Japan – While the summer heat was something of a forgotten concern ahead of the Tokyo Olympics due to the pandemic, it definitely was noticeable last week during the men's golf competition and became a real-life factor Wednesday as the women's tournament got underway at…
Staff Reporter. South Africa's Thando Dlodlo, Gift Leotlela, Clarence Munyai and Akani Simbine celebrate winning the Men's 4x400 Metres Relay final Athletics. Image:Aleksandra Szmigiel. All eyes will turn to an exciting day of competition on Thursday after a tame day for the South African track and field team at the…
Staff Reporter. The sky's the limit for South Africa's leading athletes and national sporting federations following the announcement of a partnership with LIFT, the country's newest and most flexible airline. The South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC) and LIFT have partnered to transport athletes in both the Olympic…
Staff Reporter. @WorldAthletics. Shot-putter Kyle Blignaut was the only South African to progress from Tuesday night’s athletics action as the three 200m sprinters all fell at the semifinal stage. The 2018 world junior champion’s second-round effort of 20.97m saw him finishing eighth overall in qualifying and safely through to Thursday’s…
By Lehlohonolo Lehana. The South African artistic swimming duet of Clarissa Johnston and Laura Strugnell will be leaving Tokyo with their heads held high after setting a new benchmark in the sport. With the country represented in the Olympic artistic swimming pool for the first time since 1992, the pair…
By Lehlohonolo Lehana. Olympic champion and world record holder Wayde van Niekerk has been eliminated from the men's 400m at the Tokyo Games. Van Niekerk, who was aiming to defend the title he won at the 2016 Rio Olympics, finished fifth in his 400m semifinal in 45.14. Only the top…
By Lehlohonolo Lehana. File Photo. Opening his campaign in defence of his title, world record holder Wayde van Niekerk kept his hopes alive by progressing safely through the opening round of the 400m event at the Tokyo Olympic Games on Sunday. Van Niekerk finished third in his heat, clocking 45.25…
Staff Reporter. Germany’s tennis ace Alexander Zverev has beaten Russian Karen Khachanov 6-3 6-1 to win the men’s singles gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics. The 24-year-old was in top form on Sunday as he defeated Khachanov in 79 minutes to become the first German man to win singles Olympic…
Staff Reporter. @SASI. Italy’s Lamont Marcell Jacobs claimed a stunning victory to take the Olympic 100m title. Jacobs became the first man to win the 100m other than Usain Bolt since Justin Gatlin in 2004. Jacobs, 26, timed a European record of 9.80 seconds, with American Fred Kerley taking silver…
By Lehlohonolo Lehana. Photo: Team South Africa. Credit: Ben Jared/PGA TOUR/IGF. American Xander Schauffele clinched the men's golf gold medal on a nail-biting final day that has gone to a seven-way play-off for the bronze medal. Ireland's Rory McIlroy and Great Britain's Paul Casey are in the sudden-death knockout for…
Staff Reporter. Brazil's men moved within two wins of back-to-back Olympic golds by beating Egypt 1-0 at Tokyo 2020. A first-half strike from Matheus Cunha put the defending champions through to the semi-finals, where they will face Mexico on Tuesday. Japan will meet Spain in the other last-four match. The…
By Lehlohonolo Lehana. South Africa's fastest men opened their Olympic campaign in explosive fashion on Saturday, making their collective presence felt in the 100m heats at the Tokyo Games. Gift Leotlela (10.04) and Akani Simbine (10.08) won their first-round heats, while Shaun Maswanganyi finished third in his heat in 10.12.…
Staff Reporter. @Reuters. Elaine Thompson-Herah broke Florence Griffith Joyner’s 33-year-old Olympic record in the women’s 100 metres, pointing at the scoreboard even before crossing the line in 10.61 seconds Saturday to defend her title and lead a Jamaican sweep of the medals. Griffith Joyner set the old record of 10.62…
Staff Reporter. Novak Djokovic threw one racquet and smashed another as his bid for an Olympic medal ended in defeat by Spain's Pablo Carreno Busta. The Serb, whose gold bid was ended by Alexander Zverev on Friday, lost 6-4 6-7 (6-8) 6-3 in the bronze-medal match. Djokovic then pulled out…
By Lehlohonolo Lehana. @PGATour. Kawagoe, Japan – American Xander Schauffele enters Sunday's final round of the men's Olympic golf tournament maintaining the one-stroke lead he held at the beginning of the day, though now the closest pursuer is Japan's own golf hero, Hideki Matsuyama, who replaced Mexico's Carlos Ortiz as…
By Lehlohonolo Lehana. South African swimming action at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre came to an end on Saturday morning with one last national record-breaking performance from Emma Chelius. The Durban swimmer took a further one hundredth of a second off the SA record she set in the heats on Friday,…
By Michael Vlismas. Photo: Christiaan Bezuidenhout of Team South Africa. Credit: Ben Jared/PGA TOUR/IGF. As Christiaan Bezuidenhout heads into the final round of the Olympic Golf competition leading Team South Africa's challenge, the Sunshine Tour star has said he cannot speak more highly of his Olympic experience, the Japanese hospitality,…
Staff Reporter. Sprinter Blessing Okagbare is out of the Tokyo Olympics after being suspended for failing a drugs test. The Nigerian - a rival to Great Britain's Dina Asher-Smith - had won her 100m heat on Friday and was due to race in the semi-finals on Saturday. The Athletics Integrity…
By Lehlohonolo Lehana. @PGATour. Kawagoe,Japan – One record-tying round of 8-under-par 63 was matched by another as Xander Schauffele of the USA supplanted Sepp Straka of Austria atop the leaderboard during Friday's second round of the men's Olympic golf competition at Kasumigaseki Country Club. While Schauffele appears headed to a…
By Lehlohonolo Lehana. Former world junior champion Sokwakhana Zazini got South Africa's track and field campaign off to a promising start on Friday, progressing to the men's 400m hurdles semifinals at the Tokyo Olympic Games. Zazini finished third in his heat in a season's best of 49.51, with Rai Benjamin…
By Michael Vlismas. Photo: Garrick Higgo managed to complete his second round 71 before the suspension of play. PGA Tour. South Africa's Christiaan Bezuidenhout had moved into a share of 15th place in the Olympic Golf competition when Friday's second round was suspended because of thunderstorms at the Kasumigaseki Country…
Staff Reporter. Novak Djokovic's hopes of winning a 'Golden Slam' are over after he lost to Alexander Zverev in the Olympic tennis semi-finals. Serb Djokovic, the world number one, was bidding to become the first man to win all four Grand Slam titles and an Olympic gold medal in the…
By Lehlohonolo Lehana. Tatjana Schoenmaker claimed South Africa's first Olympic gold medal in Tokyo as she won the women's 200m breaststroke final on Friday, setting a new world record in the process. Swimming in lane 4, Schoenmaker timed her race to perfection, sitting behind American Lilly King for the first…
By Lehlohonolo Lehana. @GettyImages. All eyes will be on the Tokyo Aquatics Centre tomorrow morning as Tatjana Schoenmaker chases her second Olympic medal. Having dominated in the heats of the 200m breaststroke, where she was just five hundredths of a second off the world record, and then the semi-finals, the…
By Lehlohonolo Lehana. Hurdles specialist Sokwakhana "Soks" Zazini and distance runner Dominique Scott-Efurd, will get South Africa's track and field campaign underway at the Tokyo Olympic Games on Friday. Zazini will be the first SA athlete to line up on Day 1 of the athletics competition in the first-round heats…
By Lehlohonolo Lehana. South African swimming duo Tatjana Schoenmaker and Kaylene Corbett have advanced to the women's 200m breaststroke final at the Tokyo Olympics after winning their semi-finals this morning. The final, which takes place at 03:41 (SA time) on Friday, will see Schoenmaker start as comfortably the fastest qualifer…
Staff Reporter. South Africa hopes of reaching the men's football quarterfinals at the Olympics were extinguished by Mexico, on Wednesday, as they fell to a 3-0 defeat in which both sides had a player sent off. Goals from Alexis Vega, Luis Romo and Henry Martin were enough to take El…
By Lehlohonolo Lehana. Tatjana Schoenmaker came within just five hundredths of becoming the fastest women in history to swim the 200m breaststroke. Just like in the 100m event a few days ago, the Pretoria swimmer was once again in spectacular form in the heats, powering her way to a national,…
Staff Reporter. The Blitzboks beat Australia and the USA to finish their campaign strongly and claim fifth place on the final day of the Olympic Sevens on Wednesday. After the disappointment of being knocked out at the quarter-final stage on Tuesday, the Blitzboks recomposed themselves for a solid finish to…
Staff Reporter. Biles dodges a bee flying near her during the medal ceremony after winning gold in the all-around final of the 2014 World Championships. Getty Images. American gymnast and four-time Olympic gold medallist Simone Biles has withdrawn from Thursday's individual all-around final in Tokyo. Biles, the most successful US…
By Lehlohonolo Lehana. Chad le Clos finished fifth in the men's Tokyo Olympics 200m butterfly final at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre on Wednesday. Swimming in lane three, Le Clos got off to a fast start, as he was the first swimmer to turn at the half-way point at the 100m…
Staff Reporter. @Reuters. Two of the biggest names of the Tokyo Olympics - Simone Biles and Naomi Osaka - went out of their respective events on day four at the Games. USA gymnast Biles pulled out of the women's team final on Tuesday. The 24-year-old left the arena after scoring…
Staff Reporter. @GalloImages. The Blitzboks will head into their final pool game against the USA high in confidence after clinching a hard-fought victory over Kenya to make it two wins from two on day one of the Olympic Sevens on Monday. South Africa should feel pleased with their results on…
By Lehlohonolo Lehana. Tatjana Schoenmaker swam so fast Sunday night she nearly swam out of her cap. She did, though, swim into an Olympic record. The South African attacked the penultimate heat of the women’s 100 breaststroke in preliminaries of the Tokyo Olympics, clocking in at 1:04.82 to take down…
Staff Reporter. Teji Savanier scored the match-winning goal in stoppage time and Andre-Pierre Gignac added three more to give France a 4-3 victory over South Africa on Sunday in the group stage of the men's Olympic football tournament. After a scoreless first half, Kobamelo Kodisang's goal put South Africa in…
Staff Reporter. @GettyImages. Golfers Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm are out of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics after testing positive for Covid-19. American DeChambeau had not yet travelled to Japan, where he was set to make his Olympic debut. Spain's world number one Rahm has tested positive for the second time…
Staff Reporter. World number one Ashleigh Barty was stunned by Sara Sorribes Tormo of Spain in the first round of women's Olympics singles in Tokyo. Australian Barty, who won her second Grand Slam title at Wimbledon in July, cut a frustrated figure in her 6-4 6-3 loss to 48th-ranked Sorribes…
By Lehlohonolo Lehana. It was a challenging opening day for Team SA at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics on Saturday. Stefan De Bod was the only rider of the three South Africans to finish the men’s road race, while there were struggles for the men’s pairs and men’s four rowers, while…
Gold medals, SA hockey teams downed,Shock exits,High temperatures and positive Covid tests on Day 1.
By Lehlohonolo Lehana. There were early gold medals for China, Iran and South Korea on a sweltering opening day of the Tokyo Olympic Games. Athletes complained about exhausting conditions given the combination of high temperatures and humidity, with several tennis players asking for matches to be moved to start later…
By Lehlohonolo Lehana. The Tokyo 2020 Olympics exploded into life on Friday night with a dazzling opening ceremony held at the National Stadium in Tokyo. Despite Covid-19 restrictions which meant that the ceremony was closed to the public, things went off smoothly as a global audience tuned in to watch…
By Lehlohonolo Lehana. @GettyImages. The honour fell to Naomi Osaka to light the flame, the beacon of hope the Olympics attempts to be. It marked the official opening of Tokyo 2020, a year later than planned, and in the midst of a global pandemic. Perhaps as expected, Friday's opening ceremony…
By Lehlohonolo Lehana. Eduardo Aguirre of Mexico scores his side's fourth goal in an Olympic match against France on July 22, 2021, at Tokyo Stadium. (Kyodo). Japan edged past South Africa 1-0 in their men's soccer opener at the Tokyo Olympics on Thursday. The match went ahead after enough South…
Staff Reporter. SASCOC has announced that Olympic swimmer Chad le Clos and national women's hockey goalkeeper Phumelela Mbande have been named as the two flagbearers for Team SA at the Opening Ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics on Friday night. The ceremony will officially launch the global sporting showpiece. In…
Staff Reporter. Spain were held to a goalless draw by Egypt in the opening game of the Olympic men's football competition despite the inclusion of Euro 2020 young player of the tournament Pedri. A frustrating result for Spain was compounded by an ankle injury to Real Madrid's Dani Ceballos as…
Staff Reporter. United States forward Megan Rapinoe said they "got bopped" and did "dumb stuff" as they lost their opening match to Sweden at the Olympic Games. The world champions were stunned 3-0 in Tokyo with striker Stina Blackstenius scoring twice, before substitute Lina Hurtig added a third for Sweden.…
Staff Reporter. @GettyImages. Zambia women's football team had an Olympic debut they will never forget - for good and bad reasons - as they faced European champions the Netherlands. Despite conceding 10 goals against the 2019 World Cup runners-up, the world's 104th-ranked side had plenty of reasons to be cheerful.…
By Lehlohonolo Lehana. Rescheduling the Tokyo Olympics "caused sleepless nights" but must go ahead "to give hope" for the future, says International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach. Bach says cancellation "was never an option" despite the difficulties involved in hosting the event amid the Covid pandemic. The opening ceremony for…
Staff Reporter. @GettyImages. Two athletes have become the first to test positive for coronavirus at the Tokyo Olympic athletes' village - five days before the start of the Games. Organisers say the duo are from the same team and sport as the official who tested positive on Saturday. Other members…