Rademeyer adds silver lining to athletics campaign

Fittingly, it was the last athlete to compete in the track and field competition who brought an end to Team SA’s campaign at the Scoutscoun Stadium and with it a shiny silver medal.

Kyle Rademeyer announced himself on the international stage with a huge performance to secure Team SA’s 28th and likely last, medal of the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

Still only 24, the pole vaulter cleared 5.70m in tricky, windy conditions, before being unable to clear 5.80m and leaving the pathway to gold open for the impressive Australian Kurtis Marschall. It’s been a statement Games from the Aussie, who go into the final day with 158 medals (61 gold). They’re clearly building for their home 2032 Olympics in the right way.

One of those gold medals to come their way was in the men’s 4x100m relay, where South Africa’s standout sprinter of the last decade, Akani Simbine, anchored a team that had set themselves up as gold medal favourites in the morning semi-finals.

Then, Simbine had finished off the race in style as Team SA romped to victory in 38.30sec. For the evening, they retained the same line-up of Mvuyo Moss, Cheswill Johnson, Bradley Nkoana and Simbine but such are the vagaries of sport that they were completely off-key compared to seven hours earlier.

By their own admission, little went right and their changeovers lacked the cohesion of earlier and although Simbine crossed the line in fifth, they were subsequently DQ’d. Afterwards, there was a collective air of disappointment and perhaps a bit of internal anger given how good they have been and how confident they were heading into the final.

Relays are unpredictable by nature though. They will be back but for now it will still hurt these proud men. Australia won in 38.07, with 0.2 second separating Canada, Nigeria and Ghana. In fact, 0.06 seconds covered the first four countries home – after which came Team SA, originally.

“It wasn’t a smooth race for us,” said Simbine. “Right from the start we just didn’t get going. This is part of the game. We have so much potential and have shown it over a number of years. We shouldn’t keep our heads down, we have other opportunities to move forward and run World Championships next year. We must make sure we clean things up and get it done right.”

Jo-Ane van Dyk, the 2024 javelin silver medallist, is still returning to her best from an operation in May and she was forced to settle for sixth here with a best throw of 56.22m. She had five throws within a distance of 55.02m and 56.22m.

In the men’s and women’s miles, Tshepo Tshite called his race “the most physical I have ever run” after Josh Kerr, the world record holder, bolted to a popular victory in 3:54.42. Tshite crossed the line in 10th in 3:57.43. In the women’s race, the Australian domination at these Games was underlined as they finished 1-2-3, with Team SA’s Karabo More finishing 12th in 4:50.96.

An elated Rademeyer said, “I go out there always trying to do my best. I knew I had a bug jump in me but I still have a bit more in me. My emotions are all over the place, especially with a season’s best and given the start to the season, I can’t ask for more. Just being healthy has been a Godsend and I’m very thankful.

“Next year the World Championships are in my sights and the goal would be to go in and make finals and for LA 2028, I missed Paris so I want to make amends for that.”

Theoretically, there’s a chance of medal No 29 coming on Sunday, with track cyclists Mitch Sparrow and S’annara Grove in action but the odds are long on them getting onto the podium. Team SA’s 28 medals is one better than achieved in Birmingham in 2022.