Initial SA Olympic team named

Cameron van der Burgh, Men 100 Breaststroke during the 2016 SA National Aquatic Championship Olympic at Kings Park Pool, Durban Kwa-Zulu Natal on 11 April 2016 ©Muzi Ntombela/Backpagepix

Cameron van der Burgh, Men 100 Breaststroke during the 2016 SA National Aquatic Championship Olympic at Kings Park Pool, Durban Kwa-Zulu Natal on 11 April 2016 ©Muzi Ntombela/Backpagepix

Published May 25, 2016

Share

Cape Town -Olympic governing body Sascoc on Wednesday announced the first names of Team South Africa to participate at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.

The initial squad of 24 athletes was released on Wednesday after the completion of the final qualifying deadlines in some of the different sporting codes.

This team is a blend of experienced and new talent with many team members having worn the green and gold of Team South Africa at previous Olympic Games. More than 10 500 athletes from 207 countries are expected to attend the event that will take place from 5-21 August 2016.

At the last Olympic Games in London, Team South Africa ended 23rd on the medals table with a total of six medals. The medals tally was made up of three gold, two silver and one bronze. Cameron van der Burgh (100m breaststroke), Chad le Clos (200m butterfly), and the men's lightweight fours rowing combination won gold medals, Caster Semenya won silver in the 800m track race and another silver came to Le Clos in the 100m butterfly race while canoeist Bridgitte Hartley bagged the bronze medal in the K1 500m. Sascoc President Gideon Sam congratulated the first members of the squad: “It's a very exciting time for us at Olympic House and it feels almost unreal to be able to reach a stage where we are able to announce the first names of a team that we feel can bring huge sporting pride to the whole of South Africa.”

Tubby Reddy, Sascoc CEO also expressed his happiness at the initial team announcement: “The time we have been waiting and preparing for in this quadrennial has finally arrived. With the combined team effort from the National Federations, coaches, athletes and us at Sascoc, we're confident that we have compiled the best team possible with the resources available. 'The team is an excellent combination of experienced campaigners and rising stars who will hopefully bring more medals from Rio than we did at the 2012 London Olympics.”

The final Olympic Games team will be announced at a press conference on 14 July 2016 while the Paralympic Games team will be announced prior to that on 6 July at a press conference as well.

If any athletes qualify with a better time between now and July 11, 2016, they will be considered.

The initial list of athletes in Team South Africa for the 2016 Olympic Games are: ATHLETICS(This is a provisional squad for the Marathon). Men: Lusapho April, Sibusiso Nzima, Lungile Gongqa Women: Irvette Van Zyl, Christina Kalmer, Diana Lebo Phalula CYCLING: Men's Road Race: Daryl Impey, Louis Meintjes CANOEING Women: Bridgitte Hartley GYMNASTICS Men's Artistic Gymnastics: Ryan Patterson S AILING Stefano Marcia, Asenathi Jim, Roger Hudson AQUATICS: Swimming, Men: Chad Le Clos, Cameron Van de Burgh, Sebastien Rousseau, Michael Meyer, Christopher Reid, Matthew Meyer, Myles Brown, Bradley Tandy, Douglas Erasmus, Jarred Crous Diving Women: Julia Vincent - African News Agency (ANA)

Related Topics: