Six more in the bag

New sprint sensation Wayde van Niekerk displayed his firepower as he bagged the 400m silver on a profitable day for Team SA yesterday.

There had been fears the medal haul would dry up, with swimming now complete. But three codes stepped up to the plate, adding six medals to take the nation's haul to 32, just one short of the 33 they took at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, India.

Track and field was the cash cow. Van Niekerk unleashed a strong run to finish second behind Olympic champion Kirani James of Grenada.

Zarck Visser and Rushwahl Samaai leapt to silver and bronze in the long jump, also losing out to an Olympic champion, Greg Rutherford of England.

Sunette Viljoen, the javelin titleholder in the past two Games, took silver. Wrestler Mpho Madi clinched bronze in the 53kg freestyle competition when she thumped local girl Shannon Hawke.

Welterweight Tulz Mbenge secured the country's first Games boxing medal in eight years when he won his quarterfinal match.

Mbenge was the only one of South Africa's six boxers to reach the semifinals, in which losers are guaranteed a bronze. His medal will register on the table only once the colour is known.

Van Niekerk ran a near-perfect race from lane four, starting hard and tracking James into the last 100m. His legs turned to stone in the final 50m, but his heart carried him through to finish in 44.68sec.

"Hey guys, haven't you got a beer for me?" he joked with journalists. "I need to carbo-load. It was tough out there."

He said his tactic was to go out hard in the first 200m and then try to ride James's tail in the second half.

"I kept up with him as much as possible. But my legs were dead by the end. I felt the Trinidadian guy [Lalonde Gordon] coming up so I dipped on the line. I was not worried he would catch me."

Visser and Samaai train with different coaches at the University of Johannesburg. But in battle they are like brothers.

The moment they knew their podium spots were secured, they knelt on the track and prayed.

Samaai achieved 8.08m with his first jump, Visser reached 8.12m on his second, and Rutherford made 8.30m on his third.

For Visser this was his first major breakthrough after a disappointing performance at the 2013 world championships.

"I could have taken gold but I'll settle for silver. That's a fight for another day," he said.

Viljoen had been pushed into third place in the final round but she responded with her best effort - 63.19m - to reclaim second behind Australian Kim Mickle.

There's promise for more SA medals in the next few days.

Lawn bowls star Colleen Piketh, the bronze medallist in the singles competition, put herself and Tracy-Lee Botha into the pairs playoffs with a spectacular final shot that eliminated Scotland.

Marsha Cox and her hockey girls beat India 3-2 in a tough encounter to finish second in their group behind New Zealand and qualify for Friday's semifinals.

Victor Hogan (discus), Andre Oliver (800m) and Cornel Fredericks (400m hurdles) qualified for finals tonight.

Games Action Today

Cycling

Women's time trial (11am) - SA's hopes are Lise Olivier, Heidi Dalton and Cherise Taylor.

Lawn bowls

Open trips (9.45am) - gold medal match.

Hockey

Round robin match - SA men vs India (5pm).

Athletics

Men's 400m hurdles final (9.15pm) - SA's hope is Cornel Fredericks.

Women's 400m hurdles final (9.25pm) - SA's hope is Wenda Nel.

Men's 800m final (8.55pm) - David Rudisha, Nijel Amos, SA's hope is André Olivier.

Men's discus throw final (7pm) - SA's hope is Victor Hogan

Weightlifting:

Men's +105kg (4.30pm) - SA's hope is Gordon Shaw

Wrestling

Preliminary rounds (11am) - SA's hopes are Jeanne-Marie Coetzer (women's 55kg), Zumicke Geringer (women's 63kg), Terry van Rensburg (men's 65kg) and Armando Hietbrink (men's 86kg).