Blast from the past: Corbett sends his javelin into orbit at world champs

1912 — Dave Nourse top-scores with 64 against Australia in Nottingham as South Africa avoid defeat for the first time in the triangular series also featuring England. South Africa made 329 and then bowled out their opponents for 219, but they never got the opportunity to try to press home the advance with no play possible on the third and final day. 

1961 — The Springboks run in eight tries as they demolish Australia 28-3 in the first Test at Ellis Park. Winger Hennie van Zyl dotted down three times while a batch of legends also scored — wing Jannie Engelbrecht, centre John Gainsford, eighthman Doug Hopwood, flyhalf Keith Oxlee and flank Martin Pelser.

1965 — Graeme Pollock scores 125 off 145 balls on the opening day of the second Test in Nottingham.

1997 — Marius Corbett stuns the javelin field at the world championships in Athens, winning the competition with a throw of 88.40m, almost two metres ahead of Briton Steve Backley (86.80). The unheralded South African hit the mark on his second attempt, but he would have also won the competition with the 87.40 he managed in the third round. 

1997 — Kerri Laing scores an unbeaten 56 and Cindy Eksteen takes 4/4 as the South African women’s cricket team win their first-ever ODI, beating Ireland by 93 runs in Belfast. The visitors totalled 175/5 in 50 overs.

2006 — A single conversion proves the difference as the Springboks go down to Australia 18-20 in a Tri-Nations encounter in Sydney. Both sides scored two tries, with centre Jaque Fourie and fullback Percy Montgomery going over for South Africa. But Wallaby centre Stirling Mortlock converted both of his team’s five-pointers, including the 75th minute touchdown by Mat Rogers, which went over off the post.

2006 — Dale Steyn takes five wickets as South Africa bowl out Sri Lanka for 321 in the second Test in Colombo for a first-innings lead of 40 runs.

2006 — Silence Mabuza, stopped in the fourth round by Rafael Marquez the previous year, quits in the ninth round of his rematch against the Mexican IBF bantamweight champion at Lake Tahoe.

2007 — Johmari Logtenberg scores 153 and Mignon du Preez an unbeaten 81 as the South African women, on 280/3, beat the Netherlands by 199 runs in the final third ODI in Deventer for a series clean sweep. Logtenberg took 2/1 from four balls and Shabnim Ismail 2/7.

2015 — Cameron van der Burgh and Chad le Clos are dethroned as world champions on the same night in Kazan. Van der Burgh lost his 50m breaststroke crown to Briton Adam Peaty as he finished second in 26.66 sec, 0.15 sec behind the winner. Van der Burgh had lowered the world record to 26.62 the previous morning, but Peaty took that that 26.42 in the evening semifinals. Le Clos, unbeaten in the 200m butterfly since winning Olympic gold in 2012, was downed by Hungarian Laszlo Cseh, the winner in 1 min 53.48 sec. Le Clos touched in 1:53.68. 

2016 — Sune Luus takes 6/36 as the South African women bowl out Ireland for 194 to win the first ODI in Dublin by 89 runs. Chloe Tryon scored 92, Laura Wolvaardt 55 and Luus 52.

2017 — Luvo Manyonga and Ruswahl Samaai make the long-jump podium at the world championships in London. Manyonga leapt to 8.48m on his second attempt to beat American Jarion Lawson into second place by four centimetres. Samaai went 8.32 on his last jump to secure the bronze medal from Russian Aleksandr Menkov.

2018 — Reeza Hendricks scores 102 from 89 balls to steer the Proteas to a 78-run victory over Sri Lanka in Kandy, taking an unassailable 3-0 lead in the five-match series. The visitors scored 363/7 and then bowled out the hosts for 285, Lungi Ngidi taking 4/57 and Andile Phehlukwayo 3/74.

2022 — Wayne Parnell takes 5/30 as the Proteas, defending 182/6, beat Ireland by 44 runs in the second T20 in Bristol to take the series 2-0.

2023 — Makazole Mapimpi and Canan Moodie score tries as the Springboks beat Argentina 24-13 in a one-off Test in Buenos Aires.