Luke Davids. Photo by Florian Eisele for OIS/IOC Michael Houlie. Photo from Houlie family Amber Schlebusch. Handout image supplied by OIS/IOC
The South African team brought the curtain down on
South Africa could not add
This is an improvement on Nanjing 2014 where Gezelle Magerman was the only medallist with the gold she won in the 400m hurdles.
We take a look at South Africa’s medalists at the Youth Games:
Amber Schlebush
The Durban Girls College pupil started South Africa’s campaign in emphatic fashion winning the country’s first ever triathlon gold medal on the opening day.
Schlebusch produced a blistering final one-kilometre run posting the fastest time on the final leg clocking 17 minutes 15 seconds.
Her gold-medal winning performance was the country’s second major title at a global multi-sport event after Henri Schoeman victory at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in April.
Michael Houlie
Living up to his promise Houlie became the first South African swimmer of colour to win gold at a major international multi-sport event winning men’s 50m breaststroke title.
The Bishops matric pupil dominated his pet 50m breaststroke event touching first in a time of 27.51 seconds.
He
Luke Davids
The Parow High School pupil was the undisputed 100m champion at the Youth Games winning both his stages in emphatic fashion to claim the gold medal.
Davids was the fastest in the first stage clocking 10.56 seconds before blitzing to a wind-assisted 10.15 in the final race.
Instead of heats and semi-finals, athletes competed in two races and the results of each were then combined.
Dune Coetzee became South Africa’s first medalist in the pool at the Youth Olympic Games. Photo by Reg Caldecott
Duné Coetzee
Coetzee won silver in the 200m butterfly becoming South Africa’s first female swimming medalist at the Youth Olympic Games.
The 16-year-old Coetzee, who made her senior debut at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in April, finished second behind Hungary’s Blanca Berecz clocking 2:11.71
Berecz hit the wall first in a time of 2:10.37 with Michaela Ryan of Australia finishing third in 2:13.12.
Dané Roets
The Noordheuwel pupil added the women’s shot put bronze medal to South Africa’s medal tally giving the Youth Games a strong female theme for the country.
She was rewarded for her consistency over both stages of the competition landing a top heave of 17.30 metres in the first following it up with a 17.34m effort for a combined distance of 34.64m.
Xinhui Li of China took the spoils with a combined distance of 36.75m thanks to two massive 18-metre throws.