Team South Africa’s Akani Simbine ran the the race of his life in the men’s 100m final but narrowly missed out on a medal after the closest finish in modern history.
American Noah Lyles produced a 9.79 run to claim gold, finishing just five thousandths of a second ahead of Jamaica's Kishane Thompson.
Simbine finished in fourth after clocking a time of 9.82, breaking his own South African record of 9.84, which he set in July 2021 in Hungry.
Fred Kerley beat Simbine to the bronze medal after he ran a 9.81 race.
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— SABC Sport (@SABC_Sport) August 4, 2024
🇿![CDATA[]]>🇦 #TeamSA's Akani Simbine won the #Athletics Men's 100M semi-final 2 and is through to the Final!
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In the women’s 800m, Prudence Sekgodiso qualified for Monday night’s final after she finished second in her semi-final in a time of 1:57.57.
Great Britain’s Keely Hodgkinson is the favourite for the final after clocking a time of 1:56.86, but Sekgodiso looks like a real contender for a medal after running close to her personal best time of 1:57.26 that she set in May this year.
Sekgodiso was pretty emotional after making the final, crying during an interview, as years of hard work and dedication finally paid off on the biggest stage of them all.
“I don’t want to say anything, I just want to go to my coach and cry with him” - An emotional Prudence Sekgodiso after finishing second in the #Paris2024 800m Heat 3 to automatically qualify for the final #gsportGlobal pic.twitter.com/1DaANWzGyG
— gsport4girls (@gsport4girls) August 4, 2024
“I’m just emotional, I don’t want to say anything ... I don’t want to say much,” Sekgodiso said after the race. “I just want to go to my coach and cry with him after all the hard work we put in.
“It means a lot, I just made it to the final with a ‘big Q’. That is huge, hey. I just want to go to my coach and go rest.”
ALL TEAM SA RESULTS FROM SUNDAY, AUGUST 4
ATHLETICS
Women’s 800m, semi-finals: Prudence Sekgodiso finished second in her semi-final in 1:57.57 to qualify for the final.
Men’s 100m, final: Akani Simbine finished fourth in a new national record of 9.82.
Men’s 100m, semi-finals: Benjamin Richardson finished third in his semi-final in 9.95, just missing out on a place in the final.
Men’s 100m, semi-finals: Shaun Maswanganyi finished fifth in his race in a season’s best time of 10.02.
Men’s 400m, round 1 heats: Lythe Pillay finished sixth in his heat in 45.60 and progressed to the repechage stage.
Men’s 400m, round 1 heats: Zakhiti Nene finished fourth in 45.01 and progressed to the repechage stage.
Men’s long jump qualification, Group A: Jovan van Vuuren was 23rd overall in qualifying after a best attempt of 7.70m, missing out on the final.
Men’s long jump qualification, Group B: Cheswill Johnson was 31st overall after best effort of 4.49m, missing out on the final.
Women’s 400m H, first round, heats: Rogail Joseph produced a personal best time of 54.56sec to finish second in her heat and automatically qualify for the semi-finals.
Women’s 400m H, first round, heats: Zeney Geldenhuys finished third in her heat to qualify automatically for the semi-finals.
CYCLING
Women’s road race: Ashleigh Moolman Pasio finished 33rd in 4:4.23, while Tiffany Keep did not finish.
GOLF
Men’s Individual, fourth round
274-Christiaan Bezuidenhout 70 71 64 69 (16th)
275-Erik van Rooyen 67 69 69 70 (17th)
@JohnGoliath82