Razeen Gutta
Geronay Michaela Whitebooi was the first female judoka to win gold for South Africa at the Commonwealth Games since readmission after her win over India’s Shushila Likmabam in the 48kg final.
Whitebooi settled proceedings in the golden score round after the match lasted just over four minutes, with her gold medal being South Africa’s first medal in judo since the Glasgow Games eight years ago.
Her win was one of six big moments of the day for Team SA, with two silvers and three bronze medals coming out of the judo, swimming and gymnastics categories in Birmingham today.
On a swimming front, two silver medals awaited Team SA in the latter stages of the day with Pieter Coetze and Erin Gallagher excelling.
Coetze scored well in the men’s 50m backstroke final, touching the wall in 24.77 seconds just 0.22 behind Andrew Jeffcoat. It was his second medal in a matter of days after winning gold in the 100m breaststroke final at the weekend.
Gallagher recorded her personal best time of 26.05 seconds in the women’s 50m butterfly final, finishing second behind Australia’s Emma McKeon.
Christian Sadie did well in the water, too, claiming bronze in the men’s 50m freestyle S7 final. The para-swimmer was outstanding, particularly in the first half of the race, eventually finishing in 29.78 seconds.
It was Caitlin Rooskrantz who began the medal trail for South Africa today on her Commonwealth Games debut, with a 13.433 score helping her to a bronze in the women’s gymnastics uneven bar final.
Charne Griesel then followed on from Whitebooi to claim another judo medal for the country, defeating Cameroon’s Marie Celine Baba Matia to claim bronze in the women’s 52kg category.
At the end of the day, Lara van Niekerk, Tatjana Schoenmaker and Kaylene Corbett all qualified for the women’s 100m breaststroke final while Chad le Clos came first in the men’s 100m butterfly semi-finals to progress to the final as well.
