1976 — Hugh Baiocchi becomes the second South African to win a European Tour event that year when he takes the Scandinavian Enterprise Open by two strokes with an overall 17-under-par 271 in Sweden. The tournament eventually morphed into the Sweden Masters in 1991. SA’s first success on the tour that season was achieved by Vincent Tshabalala, who won the French Open in May.
1997 — Boxer Baby Jake Matlala scores one of the great upsets as he beats American Michael Carbajal to win the marginal IBA junior-flyweight title in Las Vegas. Carbajal, one of the hardest punchers in the history of the division, was a former WBC, IBF and WBO world champion who engaged in a tough trilogy against Mexican Humberto Gonzalez. Matlala outboxed Carbajal before the fight was halted because of cuts in the seventh round.
1998 — The Springboks concede two tries, but three Percy Montgomery penalties help to ensure they edge Australia 14-13 in a Tri-Nations match in Perth. Scrumhalf Joost van der Westhuizen scored the visitors’ only try.
2010 — Louis Oosthuizen becomes the fourth South African to win a British Open title at St Andrews. Having won only once on the European Tour before then, he was considered an outsider. But Oosthuizen thrived in difficult conditions as he fired a 16-under-par 272 to win by seven shots ahead of Englishman Lee Westwood. His former champion countrymen are Bobby Locke (four times), Gary Player (three times) and Ernie Els (twice).
2014 — Zolani Tete lands the first of his world titles when he outpoints Japan’s Teiru Kenoshita for the vacant IBF junior-bantamweight title in Kobe.
2015 — The Springboks go down 20-24 to Australia in a Rugby Championship match in Brisbane. Lock Eben Etzebeth and centre Jesse Kriel scored tries for SA. The Wallabies dotted down three times.
2016 — Sprinter Akani Simbine breaks his own South African 100m record as he wins the Hungarian Grand Prix at Székesfehérvár in 9.89 sec. That was the third time he had held the mark, having gone 9.96 in Pretoria earlier in the year and then 9.97, while racing to victory at the World Student Games in Gwangju, South Korea, the previous year to share it with Henricho Bruintjies.
2017 — Playing in the World Cup semifinals, the SA women’s cricket team are eliminated at the end of a thrilling contest, losing to England by two wickets with two balls remaining. Batting first at Bristol County Ground, SA scored 218/6 with Mignon du Preez making an unbeaten 76. It was a brave performance by SA, who had been thumped by England by a margin of 68 runs at the same ground earlier in the tournament.
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