TEAM South Africa had one of their most successful Olympics of late and returned to the country capturing a solid 10 medals.
Alberton and the Southern Suburbs boasted four of the team members who went to the 2016 Rio Olympics which was held from August 5 to August 21 in Rio de Janeiro.
Local athletes included Vincent Breet from Alberton, who formed part of the rowing team consisting of four members, Kyle Dodd from Glenanda riding for the Alrode BMX club, Alyssa Conley for athletics and Daryl Impey for cycling. All held their own in their various sporting codes. Though none of them brought back any medals they made Alberton and the South proud.
South African BMX rider, Kyle Dodd had his hopes of Olympic glory dashed after missing out on qualification for the semi-finals by the narrowest of margins.
Dodd (22) was tied with 2012 gold medallist Maris Stromberg and Switzerland’s David Graf on 14 points after three runs, but his placing saw him and Stromberg bowing out. Dodd was left well placed in the first two runs, but a fifth place in the final run saw him lose out on qualification for the semis.
Vincent Breet competed with Jake Green, Jonty Smith and David Hunt in the men’s coxless fours and made the Final A in their quest for a podium place. Unfortunately they faded badly at the end of the race and received a fourth spot, missing out on the bronze medal. They recorded a time of 6:05.80. Great Britain won gold in 5:58.61.
Alyssa Conley went all out in the 100m and 200m events. She couldn’t make the next round in both the events. In the 200m she was fourth in heat three of nine with a time of 23.17 (0.32sec outside her season’s best). Conley’s heat went to Caribbean athletes Michelle-Lee Ahye (Trinidad and Tobago) and Jamaica’s Simone Facey, who grabbed the two automatic qualifying spots in 22.50 and 22.78. Conley was ranked 36th after the completion of the heats. To progress she had to run a 22.94. In the 100m she ran 11.57 in round one and was ranked 41.
Daryl Impey and Louis Meintjies were part of South Africa’s road cycling team and competed in Saturday’s individual men’s road race at Fort Copacabana. Meintjes rode to an impressive seventh spot, 22sec off the pace while veteran Impey also impressed with a solid 28th spot, +9:38 adrift after doing a lot of work on the front edge of the peloton in the middle stages of the race against the world’s top road exponents.
Daryl had a bike change early on after the cobbles where his chain ring got stuck and then he really had to chase hard to get back into the mix at a time where Great Britain were pushing hard. It turned out the best that Daryl was riding in support of Louis.
Credit: SASCOC and the various sporting codes.
