NEW sprint sensation Wayde van Niekerk displayed his firepower as he bagged the 400m silver on a profitable day for Team South Africa yesterday.
There had been fears that the medal haul would dry up with swimming now complete, but three codes stepped up to the plate, adding six medals to take the nation's haul to 32, just one short of the 33 they took at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi.
Track and field was the cash cow.
Van Niekerk unleashed a strong run to finish second behind Olympic champion Kirani James of Grenada.
Zarck Visser and Rushwahl Samaai leaped to silver and bronze in the long jump, also losing out to an Olympic champion, Greg Rutherford of England.
Sunette Viljoen, the javelin titleholder at the past two Games, took silver last night.
Wrestler Mpho Madi clinched bronze in the 53kg freestyle competition when she thumped home girl Shannon Hawke of Scotland.
And welterweight Tulz Mbenge secured the country's first Games boxing medal in eight years when he won his quarterfinal.
Mbenge was the only one of SA's six boxers to get into the semifinals, where losers are guaranteed bronze. His medal will register on the table only once the colour is known.
Van Niekerk ran a near perfect race from lane four, starting hard and tracking James into the last 100m.
His legs turned to stone in the final 50m, but his heart carried him through to the finish line in 44.68sec.
"Hey guys, haven't you got a beer for me?" the exhausted Van Niekerk, leaning on the barrier in the mixed zone, joked to SA journalists. "I need to carbo-load.
"It was tough," he admitted, explaining his tactic was to go out hard in the first 200m and then try ride James's tail in the second half. "I kept up with him as much as possible.
"But my legs were dead by the end. I felt the Trinidad guy [Lalonde Gordon] coming up so I dipped on the line. I was not worried he would catch me.
"My goal was to get into the top three," added Van Nierkerk, who earlier in the day qualified past the 200m heats.
Visser and Samaai train with different coaches at the University of Johannesburg, but in battle they are brothers.
The moment they knew their podium spots were secured, they knelt on the track and prayed.
"We gave thanks for that amazing talent God gave us," said Samaai, whose first name is a variation of his dad's, Russell.
Samaai achieved 8.08m with his first jump, Visser reach 8.12 on his second, and Rutherford made 8.30 on his third.
For Visser this was his first major breakthrough after a disappointing performance at the 2013 world championships. "The most important thing is to qualify - then the fun begins.
"I could have taken gold, but I'll settle for silver. That's a fight for another day."
Viljoen had been pushed into third place in the final round, but she responded with her best effort, 63.19m, to reclaim second behind Australian Kim Mickle, who posted a Games record 65.96m.
There's promise for more SA medals in the next few days.
Lawn bowls star Colleen Piketh, the bronze medallist in the singles competition, put herself and Tracy-Lee Botha into the pairs playoffs with a spectacular final shot that eliminated Scotland.
Just when the hosts thought they had it wrapped up, Piketh produced her trademark magic to steal the end by one shot.
"Any other connection apart from the one she got and we would have been okay," lamented Scotland's Lorraine Malloy.
The open and women's trips and the men's fours are also in the hunt.
Marsha Cox and her hockey girls beat India 3-2 in a tough encounter to finish second in their group behind New Zealand and qualify for Friday's semifinals.
Victor Hogan (discus), Andre Oliver (800m) and Cornel Fredericks (400m hurdles) qualified for finals tonight.
SA reach 32 on the Commonwealth medals table, one less than previous record
NEW sprint sensation Wayde van Niekerk displayed his firepower as he bagged the 400m silver on a profitable day for Team South Africa yesterday.
There had been fears that the medal haul would dry up with swimming now complete, but three codes stepped up to the plate, adding six medals to take the nation's haul to 32, just one short of the 33 they took at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi.
Track and field was the cash cow.
Van Niekerk unleashed a strong run to finish second behind Olympic champion Kirani James of Grenada.
Zarck Visser and Rushwahl Samaai leaped to silver and bronze in the long jump, also losing out to an Olympic champion, Greg Rutherford of England.
Sunette Viljoen, the javelin titleholder at the past two Games, took silver last night.
Wrestler Mpho Madi clinched bronze in the 53kg freestyle competition when she thumped home girl Shannon Hawke of Scotland.
And welterweight Tulz Mbenge secured the country's first Games boxing medal in eight years when he won his quarterfinal.
Mbenge was the only one of SA's six boxers to get into the semifinals, where losers are guaranteed bronze. His medal will register on the table only once the colour is known.
Van Niekerk ran a near perfect race from lane four, starting hard and tracking James into the last 100m.
His legs turned to stone in the final 50m, but his heart carried him through to the finish line in 44.68sec.
"Hey guys, haven't you got a beer for me?" the exhausted Van Niekerk, leaning on the barrier in the mixed zone, joked to SA journalists. "I need to carbo-load.
"It was tough," he admitted, explaining his tactic was to go out hard in the first 200m and then try ride James's tail in the second half. "I kept up with him as much as possible.
"But my legs were dead by the end. I felt the Trinidad guy [Lalonde Gordon] coming up so I dipped on the line. I was not worried he would catch me.
"My goal was to get into the top three," added Van Nierkerk, who earlier in the day qualified past the 200m heats.
Visser and Samaai train with different coaches at the University of Johannesburg, but in battle they are brothers.
The moment they knew their podium spots were secured, they knelt on the track and prayed.
"We gave thanks for that amazing talent God gave us," said Samaai, whose first name is a variation of his dad's, Russell.
Samaai achieved 8.08m with his first jump, Visser reach 8.12 on his second, and Rutherford made 8.30 on his third.
For Visser this was his first major breakthrough after a disappointing performance at the 2013 world championships. "The most important thing is to qualify - then the fun begins.
"I could have taken gold, but I'll settle for silver. That's a fight for another day."
Viljoen had been pushed into third place in the final round, but she responded with her best effort, 63.19m, to reclaim second behind Australian Kim Mickle, who posted a Games record 65.96m.
There's promise for more SA medals in the next few days.
Lawn bowls star Colleen Piketh, the bronze medallist in the singles competition, put herself and Tracy-Lee Botha into the pairs playoffs with a spectacular final shot that eliminated Scotland.
Just when the hosts thought they had it wrapped up, Piketh produced her trademark magic to steal the end by one shot.
"Any other connection apart from the one she got and we would have been okay," lamented Scotland's Lorraine Malloy.
The open and women's trips and the men's fours are also in the hunt.
Marsha Cox and her hockey girls beat India 3-2 in a tough encounter to finish second in their group behind New Zealand and qualify for Friday's semifinals.
Victor Hogan (discus), Andre Oliver (800m) and Cornel Fredericks (400m hurdles) qualified for finals tonight.
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