Blast from the past: Cloete clears two metres for gold at world champs

Today in SA sports history: August 12

1893 — Cyclist Laurens Meintjes becomes SA’s first official world champion in any sport, winning the 50 mile (80km) race at the inaugural world track championships in Chicago as he clocked 2hr 11 min 6.4/5ths sec. He finished ahead of Charles Albrecht of Germany and an American listed as B Ulbricht. Meintijes’s home country was listed as Transvaal. At another competition in Springfield the next month he broke three world records in one day, going three miles (4.8km) in 6 min 45-1/5 sec, four miles (6.4km) in 8 min 57-3/5 sec and five miles (8km) in 11 min 6-1/5 sec. Meintjes, who was born in Aberdeen in the Eastern Cape, is no direct descendant of current cyclist Louis Meintjes.

1912 — Aubrey Faulkner takes seven wickets as SA bowl England out for 176 at The Oval on the first day of their final sixth Test of the triangular tournament also featuring Australia, but it’s not enough to avoid their fifth loss of the competition. Having already been bowled out for 95 in their first innings, SA made 93 in their second knock before the hosts quickly marched to a 10-wicket victory.

1933 — Legendary forward Boy Louw and winger Freddy Turner score tries as the Springboks beat the touring Australians 12-3 in the third Test at Ellis Park to take a 2-1 lead in the five-match series. All-time greats, fullback Gerry Brand and flyhalf Bennie Osler, added points with the boot, Brand kicking a conversion and Osler a drop. 

1961 — Flyhalf Keith Oxlee scores 14 points as the Springboks beat Australia 23-11 in the final second Test at the Boet Erasmus stadium in Port Elizabeth. Oxlee scored one of SA’s three tries, converted one and landed three penalties on the day. Fullback Lionel Wilson kicked a drop.

1964 — SA is officially barred from the Tokyo Olympics after the country’s National Olympic Committee refused to publicly renounce racial discrimination in sport. It was the beginning of SA’s stay in the Olympic wilderness, which lasted a total of seven Games until 1988. SA returned at Barcelona 1992. 

1967 — The Springboks play to a lacklustre 6-6 draw against France in the final fourth Test at Newlands to win the series 2-1. The visitors scored the only try of the match, while for SA fullback HO de Villiers slotted a penalty and flyhalf Piet Visagie put over a drop.

1979 — Double world champion Kork Ballington wraps up the 250cc world championship as he races to victory in the British motorcycle Grand Prix at Silverstone. He also won the 350cc event to keep his hopes alive in that class, with two more GPs to go.

1981 — Lock Hennie Bekker scores a try on debut,  but the Springboks lose the opening Test against the All Blacks in Christchurch 9-14. The home side ran in three tries.

2001 — Hestrie Cloete wins the women’s high jump at the world championships in Edmonton, clearing two metres to edge Inha Babakova of Ukraine on countback. The men’s 4x100m relay team of Morne Nagel, Corne du Plessis, Lee-Roy Newton and Matthew Quinn won silver behind the Americans, but that was upgraded to gold after the US outfit was disqualified for doping.

2002 — Herschelle Gibbs scores 114 as the Proteas beat Pakistan by 54 runs in a triangular ODI tournament in Tangier. SA made 283/9. 

2014 — The Proteas beat Zimbabwe by nine wickets in a one-off Test in Harare. Dale Steyn and debutant Dane Piedt each took eight wickets in the match.

2016 — Chad le Clos, four years after sharing the 100m butterfly silver in a two-way tie at the London Games, repeats the feat in a three-way tie at the Rio Games. Joseph Schooling won Singapore’s first Olympic gold in a 50.39 sec Olympic record, but behind him Le Clos, defending champion Michael Phelps of the US and Hungarian Laszlo Cseh finished second in 51.14.

2018 — A lacklustre Proteas are hammered by Sri Lanka by 178 runs in the final fifth ODI in Colombo. Quinton de Kock was the best of SA’s batsmen, making 54 in an otherwise dismal innings that was over in the 25th over. The visitors won the series 3-2.