Blast from the past: Olympic gold, silver and bronze for Schoeman

Today in SA sports history: August 20

1920 — Bevil Rudd bags the second of his three Olympic medals at the Antwerp Games, this time winning 400m gold to add to his 800m silver. He clocked 49.6 to comfortably hold off his nearest rival, Guy Butler of Britain (49.9).

1947 — Opening batsman Bruce Mitchell scores an unbeaten 189 to add to the 120 he made in the first innings as SA draw the final fifth Test against England at The Oval. He was on the field for all but 10 minutes of the four-day match, and that was in the final period of the SA first innings when his teammates added nine runs to the total. Mitchell and Dudley Nourse, 97, put on 184 for the third wicket in the second innings. Nourse was denied a likely century when he was given out in bizarre circumstances. A delivery by spinner Dick Howorth glanced off his calf and the bowler appealed for leg before, while wicketkeeper Godfrey Evans went up for a caught behind. Nourse was, apparently correctly, given not out on both counts, but then England captain Len Hutton at first slip noticed a bail on the ground and pointed this out to the umpires who then proceeded to give Nourse out bowled, even though the ball hadn’t touched his stumps. The home side, however, won the series 3-0.

1955 — Winger Tom van Vollenhoven becomes the first Springbok to score a hat-trick of tries on home soil as SA rout the British Lions 25-9 in the second Test at Newlands. He was the third Bok to have scored a hat-trick, after Boetie McHardy and Jan Stegmann who achieved the feat in the same Test against Ireland in Dublin in 1912. SA scored seven tries in total as they drew level in the four-match series at 1-1.

1978 — Kork Ballington, having already claimed the 350cc world title, stakes his claim in the 250cc class as he wins the West German Grand Prix at Nurburgring. He needed only to finish strongly in the remaining two races to secure the double.

1994 — Vuyani Bungu stuns the world when he outpoints unbeaten Kennedy McKinney, a gold medallist at the 1988 Olympics, to win the IBF junior-featherweight crown at the Carousel Casino, north of Pretoria. It was sweet revenge in a way because McKinney had taken the belt from Bungu’s stablemate Welcome Ncita. Until Bungu, the SA champion, had won the world title, he had been considered little more than Ncita’s sparring partner. He would go on to defend that title 13 times, a record for any SA world champion.

1994 — The Proteas, leading the series 1-0, blow a narrow first innings advantage of 28 as they get bowled out for 175 in the second innings of the decisive third Test at The Oval. Daryll Cullinan’s 94 was the highlight of a dismal knock in which nine of his teammates fell to Kingston-born Devon Malcolm, who ended with 10 wickets for the match. England, chasing 204 to win, cantered to an eight-wicket victory the next day to draw the series 1-1.

1996 — Vuyani Bungu, despite suffering a bad cut, makes the seventh successful defence of his IBF juinor-featherweight crown as he outpoints Jesus Salud of the Philippines at the Carousel Casino, north of Pretoria.

2000 — Lance Klusener (49) and Neil McKenzie (45) spark a fightback as the Proteas beat Australia in Melbourne by eight runs to win the third ODI and tie the series 1-1. Defending 206/7, SA’s bowlers performed well, spinner Nicky Boje taking 2/29 in his 10 overs.

2004 — Roland Schoeman becomes the second South African to win three medals at a single Olympics as he takes third place in the 50m freestyle at the Athens Games. An uncharacteristically poor dive possibly cost Schoeman the gold, but he swam well to secure the bronze in 22.02 sec to add to his 100m freestyle silver and 4x100m freestyle relay gold. To date athlete Bevil Rudd is the only other South African to have won three medals, also taking gold, silver and bronze at Antwerp 1920. American Gary Hall junior, who had shared the 50m freestyle gold with countryman Anthony Ervin at the 2000 Games, won in 21.93. Croatia’s Duje Draganja was second in 21.94.

2004 — Jacques Kallis scores 74 and Mark Boucher 58 to lift the Proteas to 263/9 in the first ODI against Sri Lanka in Colombo, but the home side take the victory by three wickets with one over remaining.

2005 — The Springboks bag their first away Tri-Nations victory in seven years as they beat an injury-hit Australia 22-19 in Perth. Winger Bryan Habana scored two tries for the visitors, while Durban-born Clyde Rathbone went over for the Wallabies. SA fullback Percy Montgomery landed three penalties and a drop.

2011 — Flyhalf Morne Steyn lands five penalties and a dropped goal to give the Springboks an 18-5 Tri-Nations victory over New Zealand in Port Elizabeth.

2012 — Vernon Philander takes five wickets as the Proteas beat England by 51 runs in the final third Test at Lord’s to win the series 2-0. With SA trailing by six runs after the first innings, Hashim Amla scored 121 to push the visitors to 351 in their second knock. Philander, after dismissing both of England’s openers for six runs, took 5/30 to finish the match with 7/78.

2016 — Caster Semenya becomes the first South African to win two consecutive Olympic gold medals when she finishes first in the 800m at the Rio Games. She clocked a 1 min 55.28 sec SA record to add to the gold she was awarded from London. Semenya had finished second in 2012, but the Russian winner was later stripped because of doping.

2016 — The Springboks score two late tries to down Argentina 30-23 in a Rugby Championship match in Nelspruit. Trailing 13-23, the home side blitzed 17 points in the final 10 minutes through tries by fullback Johan Goosen and eighthman Warren Whiteley, both converted by flyhalf Elton Jantjies, who also landed a penalty.