The 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo officially got underway last week Friday with a dazzling opening ceremony which celebrated the history of Japan while also paying homage to Olympians past and present.
With close to 170 South African athletes competing at the Games, it is one of the largest contingents sent to date, but the medals have been very few and far between.
For the Free Staters competing at the Games there has been much to write home about while luck hasn’t been on the side of a few of the representatives.
The Blitzboks coach, Neil Powell, was forced to self-isolate after testing positive for Covid-19. The former Free State scrumhalf picked up the virus en route to Japan. Chris Dry was part of the Springbok Sevens team that was stunned by Argentina on Tuesday with a heartbreaking 19-14 defeat, that put them out of contention for a medal.
In the cycling, Carla Oberholzer unfortunately could not complete the 96.6km women’s road race last Sunday. Her teammate and fellow Eunice old girl, Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio, did, however, complete the race in a very respectable 13th in a time of 3:44:31. Moolman-Pasio went on to take the 8th place in the 21,1km women’s individual time trial in 32:37.60.
In the hockey, both the men’s and women’s teams have been far from their best and each has suffered three successive defeats at Olympics. By Wednesday, the women’s team had managed to score just one goal in the tournament, and that was by the Bloemfonteiner, Nicole Erasmus.
The reining 400m world record holder and Olympic champion, Wayde van Niekerk, will, however, be in action as of Sunday when the athletics gets underway. Van Niekerk will be competing in the single lap sprint and he may just spring another major surprise. On 7 August, the reining Comrades champion, Gerda Steyn, will compete in the women’s marathon in Tokyo. – MORGAN PIEK
