Five more swimming medals and gold for Van Niekerk

Oh, what a night. Tears, laughter, disbelief, belief, records and the currency that every team is measured by - medals. Team SA’s swimmers have certainly stamped their mark on the Tollcross International Swimming Centre at the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games.

Another five medals took the Team SA tally from the pool to 16 with one night remaining and it’s not beyond the realms of possibility that we see the total grow to 20.

The tears came from women’s 50m breaststroke gold medallist Lara van Niekerk who retained the title she won in Birmingham four years ago. She refused to lose in the mayhem of the 50m sprint and touched first in 30.43sec. She looked for her parents in the stands but couldn’t immediately see them. No problem, she connected with them as she paraded after the medal ceremony and the waterworks opened.

It’s been a tough road since she did the breaststroke double in Birmingham, the never-say-die 23-year-old coming back from a sustained series of health issues and other challenges.

But she’s back where she belongs, on the top step of the podium and now all systems go to next year’s World Championships and the 2028 LA Olympics. In LA there will be 50m events introduced to the swim programme. The likes of Van Niekerk, Pieter Coetze, Michael Houlie and Chris Smith will be licking their lips.

There were also tears from Danicka Vyncke, who won silver in the women’s S13 50m freestyle. The 2024 Paralympian climbed out the water in a state of disbelief. Even after she’d had time to settle down, soak in the medal ceremony anthems and walkaround, the Tuks swimmer was still dumbstruck. “I simply can’t believe it,” she said.

The belief came from Houlie and Chad le Clos, both of whom were part of the squad that claimed the mixed 4x100m relay silver medal, with a sort of Bomb Squad approach to the final. Le Clos had helped Team SA through the morning qualifiers but he watched from the stands as Coetze and Houlie built up a commanding halfway advantage – the other teams used their female swimmers for the first two legs. Then, they watched as Erin Gallagher and Aimee Canny kept the line, only allowing Australia to get past inside the final 100m.

“We did it for Chad,” Gallagher said. “We wanted to get that 20th medal for him.” Indeed, the silver will go onto Le Clos’ CV, which means that he joins Australian female swimmer Emma McKeon as the most decorated Commonwealth Games athlete ever. Will we get No 21 on Wednesday’s closing night? Le Clos seems to think so.

The records came from Le Clos, in reaching 20 and Coetze who is chasing a rare clean sweep of backstroke gold medals. He set himself up for the missing 100m with a breathtaking display of speed and power as he broke the Games record in the semi-finals. Bet on him to win gold on Wednesday and bet on Ruard van Renen to again be on the podium with him, like they were after the 50m.

Four of the five medals on the night came from Nathan Hendricks (men’s S13 50m freestyle silver), Vyncke (women’s S13 50m freestyle silver), Van Niekerk (50m breaststroke gold) and the mixed 4x100m relay (silver).

The other was from Canny in the 200m individual medley.

Canny’s race was one of the more remarkable that will be seen at these Games. She catapuled off the blocks in lane five and her butterfly stroke carried her to the first wall first, in 27.62sec. However, she was swallowed up by the field in the backstroke and went from leading to seventh of eight swimmers, 1.45sec behind the halfway leader.

However, Canny’s best was still to come. After taking silver in the individual 100m breaststroke she said that she “now feels like an elite breaststroker”. One by one she picked off her rivals and made up five places.

She turned for the final 50m freestyle only 0.11sec behind new leader Amalie Smith but quickly asserted control. With 25m remaining, Canny looked to have gold in her sights but the surging Australian Jenna Forrester, in the lane next to the South African, hauled her in to get her fingertips ahead inside the final five metres.

Canny’s time of 2:09.37 was a full 1.6sec quicker than her morning qualifying swim. “Well, that was fun, wasn’t it?” she said as she continues to rise up the rankings.