SA relay team grab silver to end five-year medal drought

Despite making multiple changes to teams, the SA squad did well in the early hours of Monday morning, breaking the nation’s five-year medal drought on the track at the World Athletics Relays in Bahamas.

The national men’s 4x400m team had to compete without world record holder Wayde van Niekerk, who was unavailable for the final, and 22-year-old Antonie Nortje was drafted in as his replacement.

Combining well, the quartet of Gardeo Isaacs, Zakithi Nene, Nortje and Lythe Pillay managed to grab the runner-up spot in the final in 3:00.75.

A strong team from Botswana – Busang Kebinatshipi, Letsile Tebogo, Leungo Scotch and Bayapo Ndori – won gold in 2:59.11.

It was South Africa’s first medal at a major global senior athletics championship since the men’s squad earned 4x200m silver at the 2019 World Relays.

Olympic qualification

Meanwhile, the SA men’s 4x100m team also did well in Bahamas to secure their place at the Olympic Games in Paris in August, joining the 4x400m squad who had qualified for the Games the day before by reaching the final of their event.

With the one-lap sprint relay team turning out in an Olympic qualifying repechage, national 200m record holder Clarence Munyai was replaced by junior athlete Bradley Nkoana for the race.

And the quartet – Bayanda Walaza, Benjamin Richardson, Nkoana and Akani Simbine – delivered in style, winning their heat in 38.08 seconds, which would have been good enough for the bronze medal if they had reached the final.

Mixed 4x400m miss out

With Nortje competing in the men’s race, due to Van Niekerk’s absence, Pillay had to dig deep by running both the 4x400m mixed and 4x400m men’s races, which were less than three hours apart.

Pillay’s inclusion in the mixed squad – joined by Mthi Mthimkulu, Shirley Nekhubui and Zeney Geldenhuys – was not enough to secure an Olympic qualifying spot, however, as they finished third in their repechage heat in 3:15.96.

If they want to compete at the Paris Games, the SA mixed 4x400m team will need to be ranked among the next two fastest countries when the qualifying window closes on 30 June.

They are currently lying 14th on that list and will now need to shatter the SA record of 3:14.97 between now and the end of June in order to book their place at the showpiece.