Here Are SA's Commonwealth Games Heroes

Halala to the SA Champs!🇿🇦
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The 2018 Commonwealth Games brought much success for Team SA and Athletics SA as a whole. The Gold Coast games not only highlighted the peaks that South African athletes can reach, but it also showed that in time, Team SA could become a dominant powerhouse in the world of athletics.

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Wake up, compete, win medals, repeat – that was the recurring theme for Team SA in Australia. A harvest of 37 medals (13 gold, 11 silver and 13 bronze) was enough to leave South Africa sixth overall on the medals table.

SA's consistent improvement on the athletics scene is starting to show. Our athletes finished first on the medals table in the 2017 IAAF Youth Championships in Kenya and seventh at the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games, so the Gold Coast finish is another best performance.

Here's a list of all the Team SA athletes who proved themselves champs in Australia:

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Athit Perawongmetha / Reuters

Medals:

Gold medals: 13, Silver medals: 11, Bronze medals: 13. TOTAL: 37 medals🏅

Gold:

Henri Schoeman – Men's Triathlon

Tatjana Schoenmaker – Women's 200m Breaststroke

Chad le Clos – Men's 200m Butterfly

Chad le Clos – Men's 50m Butterfly

Chad le Clos – Men's 100m Butterfly

Cameron van der Burgh – Men's 50m Breaststroke

Tatjana Schoenmaker – Women's 100m Breaststroke

Akani Simbine – Men's 100m Track

Caster Semenya – Women's 1,500m Track

Luvo Manyonga – Men's Long Jump

Ndodomzi Ntutu – Men's T12 100m Track

Martin Erasmus – Men's 97kg Wrestling Freestyle

Caster Semenya – Women's 800m Track

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Silver:

Chad le Clos – Men's 100m Freestyle

Esme Kruger, Nicolene Neal, Johanna Snyman and Elma Davis – Women's Fours Lawn Bowls

Dylan Buis – Men's T38 100m Track

Christian Sadie – Men's S6 50m Freestyle

Henricho Bruintjies – Men's 100m Track

Brad Tandy – Men's 50 Freestyle

Princess Schreuder and Philippus Walker – Lawn Bowls Mixed B2/B3

Johannes Botha – Men's Wrestling 74kg Freestyle

Hilton Langenhoven – Men's T12 100m Track

Nicolene Neal and Colleen Piketh – Women's Lawn Bowls Pairs

Akani Simbine, Anaso Jobodwana, Henricho Bruintjies and Emile Erasmus – Men's 4x100m Relay

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Dan Mullan via Getty Images

Bronze:

Ryan Coetzee – Men's 50m Butterfly

Cameron van der Burgh – Men's 100m Breaststroke

Cameron van der Burgh, Chad le Clos, Bradley Tandy and Calvyn Justus – Men's 4 x 100m Medley Relay

Colleen Piketh – Women's Singles Lawn Bowls

Mona Pretorius – Women's 63kg Weightlifting

Charl du Toit – Men's T38 100m (WR time)

Sunette Viljoen – Women's Javelin

Reinhardt Hamman – Men's F38 Shot Put

Ruswahl Samaai – Men's Long Jump

Alan Hatherly – Men's Cross-Country Cycling

Christopher Patton, Tobias Botha and Willem Viljoen – Lawn Bowls Triples B6/B7/B8

Wenda Nel – Women's 400m Hurdles

Clint Hendricks – Men's Cycling Road Race

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David Gray / Reuters

In 2014 in Glasgow, SA bagged 40 medals, 13 of which were gold. While the team has not bettered their tally of gold medals or the total, there was a spread of medals throughout different sporting codes. Here is where Team SA won its medals:

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BBC

No games round-up would have been complete without mentioning the stellar performances – and biggest disappointments:

Best Moment:

Three-time world champion, two-time Olympic champion and one back-to-back gold medal win at the Commonwealth Games (CWG) – Caster Semenya is golden!

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Athit Perawongmetha / Reuters

Semenya broke two records in one race, after she took gold in the Women's 800m in a time of 1:56.68 – a Commonwealth Games record. Her 800m win (a distance that she has dominated for several years) also made her the first female athlete to win back-to-back golds in both the 1,500m and 800m.

Best Athlete:

Meet South Africa's new swimming sensation, Tatjana Schoenmaker. The 20-year-old took the games by storm — or, rather, made waves in the pool — as she ascended to the upper echelons of South Africa's swimming sorority. She outshone world stars Chad le Clos and Cameron van der Burgh after winning back-to-back golds.

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Clive Rose via Getty Images

Schoenmaker is definitely the new poster girl of SA swimming. She won two gold medals, in the women's 100m and 200m breaststroke, smashing the African records for both, the latter with a time of 2:22.02.

Biggest Disappointment:

Defending Commonwealth Games Rugby 7s champions and HSBC Sevens World Series title holders, the Bliztboks, were the favourites to claim the gold once again in 2018, but unfortunately finished in a disappointing fourth place, losing out on a medal in the process.

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PA Wire/PA Images

Still, overall, Team SA enjoyed a successful 2018 Commonwealth Games.

Halala to the champs!