South Africa’s two golds and two silver medals in athletics have put the country ahead of powerhouses Great Britain and Germany, who finished sixth and seventh respectively in the IAAF Medal Table.
The Performance of athletics contributed to Team South Africa finishing 30th at the Rio 2016 Medal Standings.
The previous benchmark for ASA was the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia where ASA won 3 medals with 10 athletes (including the medallists) reaching the finals.
With the athletics SA quartet of World Champion Wayde van Niekerk (400m Men - gold), Caster Semenya (800 Women - gold), Sunette Viljoen (Javelin Throw Women - silver) and Luvo Manyonga (Long Jump Men - silver) bringing the total tally to four medals, the 2016 Olympic Games is now the new benchmark for the Rainbow Nation going forward.
South Africa has participated in seven post-apartheid Olympic Games since 1992 in Barcelona, with the previous best record of three medals coming in the 2000 Olympics where Hestrie Cloete earned silver in the women's high jump, Llewellyn Herbert a bronze in men's 400m hurdles and Frans Kruger achieved bronze in the men's discus.
In those games, the Rainbow Nation had nine finalists overall.
