South Africa will be hoping to build on an impressive Rio, but face a number of challenges
The Olympic torch finally burns in Tokyo. After a traditional countrywide relay beset with difficulties, the torch finally arrived in the capital, welcomed by the thousands of empty seats that will characterise these Games.
The South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee has taken its biggest ever squad to these Games. The contained Olympic village will include 185 of South Africa’s athletes, up from 137 in Rio. They will compete in 17 of the 33 sports at the event. Wayde van Niekerk has been a tad more fortunate. Having run the fastest lap ever recorded by a human being in 2016, thematch a year later and has been blighted by setbacks ever since. He managed to achieve a qualifying time last month, having finally made his comeback in earnest this year.
Akani Simbine, of course, will look to have his own say. The in-form star of the athletics squad recently clocked in at 9.84 seconds — a new African record and second-fastest time this year. He remains one of South Africa’s best hopes for greatness.Gift Leotlela has also registered a sub-10 seconds this year, and 20-year-old Shaun Maswanganyi would have done so too, were it not for his time being reduced because of favourable wind conditions.
Preparations, however, have been severely affected in the lead-up to the first match next month. Even before the first positive tests of the Games, the squad was put into quarantine after a passenger on their flight tested positive. The setback naturally restricted training and opportunities to acclimatise. , as he fulfils his duties the best way he can over video conferencing.
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