1976 — Romanian Nadia Comaneci, just 14 but already the world champion, becomes the first gymnast in Olympic history to score a 10, executing her perfect routine on the uneven bars. The teen received six more flawless scores as she won three gold medals, for the bars, beam and individual all-around, as well as silver in the team event and bronze in the floor exercise.
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. South Africa’s first success on the tour that season was achieved by Vincent Tshabalala, who won the French Open in May.
1999 — Penny Heyns completes a world record frenzy at the Janet Evans Invitational in Los Angeles. After breaking the 200m world record in both the heats and final the day before, she did a double in the 100m, going 1:06.99 in the morning preliminaries and then 1:06.95 in the evening final.
2010 — Louis Oosthuizen becomes the fourth South African to win a British Open title, claiming the 150th edition 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).
2010 — Jordy Smith wins the Billabong Pro J-Bay, becoming the first South African to win a world tour event since Shaun Tomson.
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.
Games history
Olympic Blasts!: Penny Heyns completes a world record frenzy
Today in Olympic history: July 18
1976 — Romanian Nadia Comaneci, just 14 but already the world champion, becomes the first gymnast in Olympic history to score a 10, executing her perfect routine on the uneven bars. The teen received six more flawless scores as she won three gold medals, for the bars, beam and individual all-around, as well as silver in the team event and bronze in the floor exercise.
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. South Africa’s first success on the tour that season was achieved by Vincent Tshabalala, who won the French Open in May.
1999 — Penny Heyns completes a world record frenzy at the Janet Evans Invitational in Los Angeles. After breaking the 200m world record in both the heats and final the day before, she did a double in the 100m, going 1:06.99 in the morning preliminaries and then 1:06.95 in the evening final.
2010 — Louis Oosthuizen becomes the fourth South African to win a British Open title, claiming the 150th edition 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).
2010 — Jordy Smith wins the Billabong Pro J-Bay, becoming the first South African to win a world tour event since Shaun Tomson.
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.