156 medals for SA!

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Published on Tuesday, 27 September 2011 07:34

Written by Kgorula Bitterhout

With the entire country buzzing about the Rugby World Cup, most people didn’t even realise that the tenth All-Africa Games were taking place in the capital city of Mozambique. 

This event took place from 3 to 18 September, with more than 200 of our athletes being a part of this demanding event, competing against 48 other nations and taking home the most medals.

Maputo managed to host the multi-sport event with some disappointments here and there. Some events were rescheduled at the last minute and there were not enough participants for swimming and athletics events, which resulted in the cancellation of these events, making it difficult for officials to get accurate results. 

Despite these minor glitches, our South African athletes went prepared and performed at their utmost. 

A pleased South African Olympic Committee president said: “The aim of being crowned the best on the continent was also to set the standard for future games.”

We congratulate our South African athletes on bringing home 62 gold, 55 silver and 40 bronze medals, which put the performances of other countries to shame. Nigeria managed to take second place and Egypt occupied third place.

Head of the delegation Barry Hendricks reported that, “South Africa coped well despite the challenges they faced.” However, South Africa faced an unfortunate beating from Ghana’s under-23 side in a game of football where Ghana managed to snatch the gold medal by winning 5-3 on penalties in a rather dreary game.