SA’s last hope of a fourth medal at the Tokyo Olympic Games faded quietly when Stephen Mokoka quit a little past the halfway mark of the men’s marathon on Sunday morning.
Mokoka‚ fifth at the 2019 world championships‚ and Elroy Gelant had stuck determinedly to the lead group for more than half of what turned out to be a brutal race with 30 runners failing to finish.Mokoka burst into the lead briefly to take the field through halfway in 1 hr 05 min 13 sec‚ but when Kenya’s world record-holder Eliud Kipchoge attacked soon after that‚ the SA duo were unable to punch back.
Gritty Gelant was the only of the SA trio to reach the finish line‚ crossing in 34th place in 2:16:43.“It was very‚ very humid. Swimmer Tatjana Schoenmaker and surfer Bianca Buitendag had scooped silver on the fourth day of the Games‚ and then Schoenmaker struck gold in the 200m breaststroke on day seven‚ the first Friday of the Olympics.
Akani Simbine came the closest with his fourth spot in the men’s 100m‚ followed by Kyle Blignaut’s sixth in the shot put. Team SA mustered three eighth places — Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio in the women’s individual time trial‚ Alan Hatherly in the mountain bike and Michael McGlynn in the 10km open water swim.
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