13th African Games: South Africa Dominate the Swimming Pool on Opening Weekend in Ghana

• Team SA earned a large medal haul on the first weekend of the 13th Africa Games
• South Africa had good performances in other sports, including wrestling and cricket
• Caitlin de Lange was the star swimmer as she secured four personal and team medals

South Africa's swimmers have sent a commanding message from the swimming pool.

Team SA had a below-average showing at the World Aquatics Championships in Doha last month, but would have been banking on success in Accra.

Across two nights in the water, the team earned 15 individual medals, as well as two team relay gold medals.

Caitlin de Lange bagged the most medals across the weekend, claiming two individual medals - gold in the 100m freestyle and silver in the 50m butterfly.

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Athletics

Along with her teammates, she added two gold medals in the 4 x 100 mixed freestyle and medley events.

Other gold medalists were Catherine van Rensburg, Simone Moll, and Clayton Jimmie in the 1,500m freestyle, 100m breaststroke, and 100m freestyle, respectively.

Much was expected of Tayla Jonker, who broke the South African record in the 50m backstroke in Doha. She took the blocks in the 200m backstroke but was beaten to the gold medal by Mauritian, Anishta Teeluck, who clocked a time over four seconds faster.

Matthew Caldwell and Leigh McMorran earned silver in the 800m freestyle and 200m butterfly, as did Hannah Mouton and Georgia Els in the 200m freestyle and 100m breaststroke, as per SuperSport.

Rounding out the weekend's successes with bronze medals were Andre Ross (200m freestyle), Jarden Eaton (50m butterfly), Helgaard Muller (200m backstroke), Liam Vehbi (200m butterfly), and Catherine van Rensburg (200m freestyle).

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Other Sports

The action in the swimming pool continues on Monday, March 11 and will wrap up on Wednesday, March 13.

The weekend's results in the pool move South Africa into third on the medals table, while Egypt leads the way.

Ghana's table tennis heartbreak

Sports Brief also previously reported on the hosts of the 13th African Games suffering an early setback.

Ghana's 10-member table tennis team suffered the unfortunate fate of an early home-field elimination.

The five men and five women all failed to make it past the Round of 16 in the tournament's opening stage.