Team SA: Latest from day one in Tokyo

This is how Team SA have fared on day one of the Tokyo Olympics so far.

Rowing, judo and cycling are finished for the day, with Stefan De Bod the only one of the three South Africans in the 234km men’s road race to compete the course.

Both Nicholas Dlamini and Ryan Gibbons posted DNFs.

COMPLETED

Judo: Women’s 48kg: South Africa’s Michaela Whitebooi, the only Judo player in the TeamSA squad, lost by Ippon to reigning Olympic champion and current World Championship bronze medallist, Paula Pareto of Argentina. The contest time was 2min 7sec. Whitebooi was more than holding her own until the time of the ending, where she was choked out.

Rowing: Men’s Pair: Luc Daffarn and Jake Green finished fifth (out of five) in their heat at the Sea Forest Waterway, racing in lane one. Winners were Romania in 6min 33.86sec, followed by Netherlands Serbia, Spain and South Africa. Daffarn and Green were tie third after the first 500m, but suffered after that. They finished 30.16sec behind the winners. The result means they now go into the repechage.

Men’s Four: Lawrence Brittain, Kyle Schoonbee, John Smith and Sandro Torrente finished fifth in their heat in 6min 25.34sec, some 31.07sec behind heat winners Australia. United States, Netherlands and Romania finished second, third and fourth. South Africa progressed to the repechage. Competing in lane one, the South Africans were always up against it, 3.65sec behind after 500m, 6.21sec behind after 1000m and 14.58sec behind after 1500m.

Cycling: Men’s Road Race: Gold went to Richard Carapez of Ecuador, followed by Belgium’s Wout van Aert and Tour de France champion Tadej Pogacar. Team SA’s Nicholas Dlamini was in the five-man lead breakaway and was eventually swallowed up by the peloton with 48km to go. He’d been in the lead group for 186km for the tough 234km  challenge. Stefan De Bod led the Team SA challenge over the finish line, in 52nd position (6hr 16min 53sec), 11:27 minutes behind the winner. Dlamini and Ryan Gibbons recorded DNFs

STILL TO COME

Hockey: Men’s Pool B – 6.30pm (11.30am): South Africa vs Great Britain. Belgium are looking to become the fourth country to win the Olympic title as reigning world champions. They are in this group, along with Netherlands, Canada and Germany

Women’s Pool A – 9.15pm (2.15pm): Ireland vs South Africa. It’s 8th in the world taking on 16th. Also in Pool A are Netherlands, India, Great Britain and Germany. TeamSA had a practice match against 13th-ranked Japan and only went down narrowly 1-0

Swimming: Women’s 100m butterfly, Heat 3 – 7.30pm (12.30pm): Erin Gallagher takes off in the third heat of five from lane seven. She has a qualification entry time of 57.67sec. The fastest 16 from the 34 swimmers across the heats progress to the semi-finals

Men’s 100m breaststroke, Heat 4 – 8.32pm (1.32pm): Michael Houlie is the fastest entrant in this heat with a 59.64sec time, which gives him the preferred lane four. World record holder from the 2019 World Championships, Britain’s Adam Peaty, swims in the final heat at 1.40am. The fastest 16 qualifiers from the heats go through to the semi-finals

Waterpolo: Women’s Group A, preliminary round – 6.20pm (11.20am): South Africa vs Spain. South Africa make their debut at the Olympics captained by Jordan Wedderburn. The country’s women have never been represented at the Games. Also in this group are Canada, Australia and Netherlands

- www.teamsa.co.za