The Blitzboks last night lifted the mantle of Commonwealth champions, handing New Zealand their first-ever Games defeat and bagging Team South Africa's second gold of the day with a 17-12 victory margin.
The other was delivered by the red-hot golden girls in the lawn bowls fours, while Colleen Piketh landed a bronze in the singles.
In the swimming pool the men's 4x200m freestyle relay team took bronze, giving Chad Le Clos his fourth medal of the Games and Sebastien Rousseau his third.
Tonight Le Clos and Cameron van der Burgh are on track to win two gold medals, while the men's trips will be looking for victory in the morning.
By the end of last night Team SA had 18 medals - five gold, five silver and eight bronze although they had slipped to seventh on the table, being leap-frogged by New Zealand.
The Blitzboks, who will be contenders when sevens makes its Olympic debut in 2016, lived up to their potential as medal contenders in Glasgow.
They suffered a blow early on when Kyle Brown went off injured, and then they conceded a try. But Seabelo Senatla struck back with tries on either side of halftime to give his team a lead they never surrendered.
Cecil Afrika dotted down for SA's third try before the New Zealanders narrowed the gap late in the game.
The Blitzboks are the best in the Commonwealth, and in rugby sevens that means they're the best in the world.
The lawn bowls gold was won in spectacular fashion by Esme and Santjie Steyn, who are not related, Tracy-Lee Botha and skip Susan Nel.
They were trailing Malaysia 4-9 after nine ends before fighting back to claim a stunning come-from-behind 14-9 victory over Malaysia.
The SA ladies produced a magical four-shot swing in the 10th end, cutting the deficit to 9-8.
They drew level in the 11th end and pulled ahead in the 12th.
"We have got a great leader (Nel) and that's the beginning and end of it all," said Esme Steyn, the only Games debutante of the four.
Nel, who won the trips gold in 2010 with Botha and the other Steyn, said the key had been their aggressive play.
"The whole team kept focused, which was important. We were using the swing of the green as it wasn't conducive to the straight bowl. We started to play more aggressive bowls. It was all about getting bowls in the head.
Primary school teacher Piketh was in devastating form in her singles match for the bronze, coming back from 7-3 down against Catherine McMillen of Northern Ireland to win 21-10.
"Once I settled in, I played well," she said.
Le Clos, Rousseau, Myles Brown and Dylan Bosch gave the Australians and Scots a torrid time in the relay, but they will need to find extra speed to make the podium by the next Olympics.
Van der Burgh, hurting after losing his 100m breaststroke crown on Saturday, threw down the gauntlet in the 50m sprint by clocking a Games record 26.80 in the semifinals last night.
Adam Peaty of England, his conqueror in the 100m, was second fastest in 26.99.
Le Clos was only second-fastest in the 100m butterfly semifinals, but he toyed with the field, looking around like a submarine periscope, which suggests the world champion will be the man to beat tonight.
On the opening day of athletics, the country's top sprinter complained he had gone cold by the time his 100m heat started because of poor organisation.
Simon Magakwe, who broke the 10-second barrier in Pretoria earlier this year, qualified for tonight's semifinals - as did countryman Akani Simbine - but he was unhappy afterwards.
"They are taking long to take us through to the track after the warm-up," Magakwe said after finishing tied second alongside Englishman Richard Kilty in 10.34sec.
"It's like I'm cold. They held us in the call room and wouldn't let us back on the warm-up track. Everyone was complaining," he said.
Simbine, who raced in the next heat, didn't experience the same hold-up, comfortably winning in 10.32.
Bring on rugby sevens at the Olympics
The Blitzboks last night lifted the mantle of Commonwealth champions, handing New Zealand their first-ever Games defeat and bagging Team South Africa's second gold of the day with a 17-12 victory margin.
The other was delivered by the red-hot golden girls in the lawn bowls fours, while Colleen Piketh landed a bronze in the singles.
In the swimming pool the men's 4x200m freestyle relay team took bronze, giving Chad Le Clos his fourth medal of the Games and Sebastien Rousseau his third.
Tonight Le Clos and Cameron van der Burgh are on track to win two gold medals, while the men's trips will be looking for victory in the morning.
By the end of last night Team SA had 18 medals - five gold, five silver and eight bronze although they had slipped to seventh on the table, being leap-frogged by New Zealand.
The Blitzboks, who will be contenders when sevens makes its Olympic debut in 2016, lived up to their potential as medal contenders in Glasgow.
They suffered a blow early on when Kyle Brown went off injured, and then they conceded a try. But Seabelo Senatla struck back with tries on either side of halftime to give his team a lead they never surrendered.
Cecil Afrika dotted down for SA's third try before the New Zealanders narrowed the gap late in the game.
The Blitzboks are the best in the Commonwealth, and in rugby sevens that means they're the best in the world.
The lawn bowls gold was won in spectacular fashion by Esme and Santjie Steyn, who are not related, Tracy-Lee Botha and skip Susan Nel.
They were trailing Malaysia 4-9 after nine ends before fighting back to claim a stunning come-from-behind 14-9 victory over Malaysia.
The SA ladies produced a magical four-shot swing in the 10th end, cutting the deficit to 9-8.
They drew level in the 11th end and pulled ahead in the 12th.
"We have got a great leader (Nel) and that's the beginning and end of it all," said Esme Steyn, the only Games debutante of the four.
Nel, who won the trips gold in 2010 with Botha and the other Steyn, said the key had been their aggressive play.
"The whole team kept focused, which was important. We were using the swing of the green as it wasn't conducive to the straight bowl. We started to play more aggressive bowls. It was all about getting bowls in the head.
Primary school teacher Piketh was in devastating form in her singles match for the bronze, coming back from 7-3 down against Catherine McMillen of Northern Ireland to win 21-10.
"Once I settled in, I played well," she said.
Le Clos, Rousseau, Myles Brown and Dylan Bosch gave the Australians and Scots a torrid time in the relay, but they will need to find extra speed to make the podium by the next Olympics.
Van der Burgh, hurting after losing his 100m breaststroke crown on Saturday, threw down the gauntlet in the 50m sprint by clocking a Games record 26.80 in the semifinals last night.
Adam Peaty of England, his conqueror in the 100m, was second fastest in 26.99.
Le Clos was only second-fastest in the 100m butterfly semifinals, but he toyed with the field, looking around like a submarine periscope, which suggests the world champion will be the man to beat tonight.
On the opening day of athletics, the country's top sprinter complained he had gone cold by the time his 100m heat started because of poor organisation.
Simon Magakwe, who broke the 10-second barrier in Pretoria earlier this year, qualified for tonight's semifinals - as did countryman Akani Simbine - but he was unhappy afterwards.
"They are taking long to take us through to the track after the warm-up," Magakwe said after finishing tied second alongside Englishman Richard Kilty in 10.34sec.
"It's like I'm cold. They held us in the call room and wouldn't let us back on the warm-up track. Everyone was complaining," he said.
Simbine, who raced in the next heat, didn't experience the same hold-up, comfortably winning in 10.32.
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