The South African cycling team made an instant impact on South Africa’s medal tally at the All Africa Games in Maputo, Mozambique on Thursday, winning four gongs in the individual time-trials.

South Africa leads the medal table with 69 medals — 31 of them gold, 18 silver and 20 bronze.

Women cyclists Lisa Olivier and Lynette Burger secured the first  medals for the seven-member cycling team.

Olivier struck gold in 19:59.40 and Burger bronze in 21:02.78.

Next up was the men, with Darren Lill and Reinhardt Janse van Rensburg in the men’s individual time-trial.

Janse van Rensburg recorded the fastest time of 34:46.36 with Lill second quickest in 35:27.34.

In the swimming pool, where it was the first day of the paralympic events, South Africa’s swimmers claimed six golds, five silvers and four bronzes.

The South African sprint canoeists also had another good day in the water as they secured four medals for the country.

Greg Louw finished first in the K1 200m category with Calcin Mokoto taking silver in the C1 200m.

Bridgette Hartley won her third gold medal, finishing first in the C1 200m, with the K2 200m duo of Shaun Rubenstein and Mike Arthur also taking gold.

Meanwhile, the South African women’s soccer team were involved in a physical encounter with Tanzania, which ended in a 2-2 draw.

Banyana Banyana’s Samantha Skiti scored her first of two goals shortly after the interval, but the Tanzanians hit back with the equaliser in the 55th minute.

Skiti put South Africa back in the lead in the 75th minute.

However, the celebrations were short-lived as their opponents levelled the score a minute later.

Earlier, the South African netball team suffered their first loss, going down to Zimbabwe by one point.

The next team on the agenda will their hosts, Mozambique, on Friday afternoon.