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REASON TO SMILE : Caster Semenya of South Africa celebrates winning silver in the women's 800m final on Day 15 of the London 2012 Olympic Games on Saturday. Photo: Getty Images

Caster Semenya won a silver medal in the women's 800m final at the London Olympic Games on Saturday to make it South Africa's most successful appearance since readmission to international sport.

The 21-year-old's silver was the country's sixth medal at these Games adding to those of swimmers Chad le Clos and Cameron van der Burgh, the men's coxless lightweight fours rowing team and Bridgitte Hartley in the canoe sprint.

South Africa ended up with three gold medals, two silver and one bronze.

Semenya finished second behind Russia's Mariya Savinova (1:56.19) in a time of 1min: 57.23sec, running her best race of the season.

Third place went to Ekaterina Poistogova of Russia, who finished in 1:57.53.

• Meanwhile, South African cyclist Candice Neethling finished 30th of 30 riders in the women's cross-country final.

Neethling finished in a time of 1hr:45min:03sec, 14.11 minutes behind French rider Julie Bresset, who finished in a time of 1: 32:52.

Germany's Sabine Spitz finished second in 1:31:54), ahead of United States rider Georgia Gould (1:32:00), who bagged the bronze medal.

• The South African men's hockey team ended their London Olympic campaign on a high, after beating India 2-1 in the teams' 11th/12th place play-off classification match at the Riverbank Arena.

The win sees them finish 11th overall, lifting themselves off the bottom of the pecking order and restoring some pride in the national side as they defeated India for the first time in a major international tournament.

South Africa suffered a poor campaign, after finishing with a single point from a 2-2 draw with Great Britain in their second match of Pool A, but losing four fixtures in their pool.

• Marc Mundell finished 32nd out of 51 athletes in the men's 50km race walk at The Mall in London, setting a new African record in the process.

Mundell finished in a time of 3:55:32), 19 minutes and 33 seconds slower than Russian winner Sergey Kirdyapkin, who set a new Olympic record with his time of 3:35:59.

Australia's Jared Tallent (3:36:53) finished in second place, ahead of China's Tianfeng Si (3:37:16), who claimed the bronze medal.

Mundell was the only African athlete to take part in the race.

• Lusapho April was the first South African home in the London Olympic marathon yesterday, crossing the line in 43rd place, in 2hrs:19min.

Stephen Mokoka finished closely behind Lusapho, in 49th position, in 2:19:52.

The gold medal was won by Ugandan Stephen Kiprotich in 2:08:01, followed by the two Kenyans, Abel Kirui (2:08:27) and London marathon winner Wilson Kiprang Kiprotich (2:09:37) for silver and bronze.

Zimbabwean Cuthbert Nyasango ran a personal best of 2:12:08, ending in seventh place and compatriot Wirimai Juwawo finished 15th with a season's best, 2:14:09.

South Africa's Coolboy Ngamole did not finish the race.

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Tue Jun 18 08:45:48 SAST 2013 ::

Aug 13, 2012

1andonlybucs

well done for bringing home some medals guys. and Caster well done again, but you cold have easily won that race, but again and again and again WELL DONE!!! u guys deserve a BELLS!!
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Aug 13, 2012

Papage

Give them R1 million each, they did well. I know we can afford six million, this is SA, if Mbalula can agree to intertainment of R17m, what is R6m to encourage our boys and girls and change their living conditions, Just give them a Bells
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