Oh, what a night. Tears, laughter, disbelief, belief, records and the currency that every team is measured by — medals.
Team SA’s swimmers have certainly stamped their mark on the Tollcross International Swimming Centre at the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games.
A further five medals on Tuesday night took the Team SA tally from the pool to 16 with one night remaining and it is not beyond the realms of possibility that we see the total grow to 20.
The tears came from women’s 50m breaststroke gold medallist Lara van Niekerk, who retained the title she won in Birmingham four years ago.
She refused to lose in the mayhem of the 50m sprint and touched first in 30.43sec.
She looked for her parents in the stands, but could not immediately see them.
No problem, she connected with them as she paraded after the medal ceremony and the waterworks opened.
It has been a tough road since she did the breaststroke double in Birmingham, the never-say-die 23-year-old coming back from a sustained series of health issues and other challenges.
But she is back where she belongs, on the top step of the podium, and it’s now all systems go to next year’s World Championships and the 2028 LA Olympics.
In LA, there will be 50m events introduced to the swim programme.
The likes of Van Niekerk, Pieter Coetze, Michael Houlie and Chris Smith will be licking their lips.
There were also tears from Danicka Vyncke, who won silver in the women’s S13 50m freestyle.
The 2024 Paralympian climbed out the water in a state of disbelief.
Even after she had time to settle down, soak in the medal ceremony anthems and walk around, the Tuks swimmer was still dumbstruck.
“I simply can’t believe it,” she said.
The belief came from Houlie and Chad le Clos, both of whom were part of the squad that claimed the mixed 4x100m relay silver medal, with a sort of Bomb Squad approach to the final.
Le Clos had helped Team SA through the morning qualifiers, but he watched from the stands as Coetze and Houlie built up a commanding halfway advantage — the other teams used their female swimmers for the first two legs.
Then, they watched as Erin Gallagher and Aimee Canny kept the line, only allowing Australia to get past inside the final 100m.
“We did it for Chad,” Gallagher said.
“We wanted to get that 20th medal for him.”
Indeed, the silver will go onto Le Clos’s CV, which means that he joins Australian female swimmer Emma McKeon as the most decorated Commonwealth Games athlete ever.
Will we get No 21 on Wednesday’s closing night? Le Clos seems to think so.
The records came from Le Clos, in reaching 20, and Coetze who is chasing a rare clean sweep of backstroke gold medals.
Four of the five medals on the night came from Nathan Hendricks (men’s S13 50m freestyle silver), Vyncke (women’s S13 50m freestyle silver), Van Niekerk (50m breaststroke gold) and the mixed 4x100m relay (silver).
The other was from Canny in the 200m individual medley.
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