Olympic debutant, Bridgitte Hartley, with a passionate nation behind her, rallied to bronze in the woman’s K1 500m final, becoming the first woman to win an Olympic medal for South Africa since 2004.
Hestrie Cloete was the last woman medal winner when she took gold in the women’s High Jump in Athens eight years ago.
It was a great claw-back by Hartley, the South African champion, to reign in the big names, finishing in a time of 1:52:923.
Shortly before her race, Hartley told gsport she was inspired by Olympic legend Penny Heyns.
“I was inspired by reading Penny Heyns book a few years back.”
Heyns tweeted Hartley shortly after she bagged bronze, saying: “Well done Bridgette! Making SA proud on women’s day!”
All eyes will now be on African and National women’s javelin champion Sunette Viljoen who is in the Olympic Final tonight at 10:00pm (SA time), but less has been heard of while Jessica Roux, appears in SA colours with bib No. 5 in the Women’s 10km Swimming Marathon Final, at 13h00.
Another big focus will be on Caster Semenya with the opportunity to secure a place in the final of the women’s 800 metres, when she lines up in the semi-final at 8:35pm (SA time) on Thursday night.
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