Commonwealth Games 2010: Natalie du Toit and Chad le Clos prove themselves yet again
Natalie du Toit of South Africa managed to clinch the gold medal in the 50 metre freestyle event on the second day of the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi. This victory makes her one of the greatest swimmers of all times and particularly of this event. She
won the same event at the Manchester Commonwealth Games in 2002, and then again in Melbourne in 2006. Natalie was seen gleaming with joy after she confirmed herself as being the best Paralympics swimmer of all times. Annabelle Williams of Australia made it
to the second place in the meet while the bronze medal was won by Stephanie Millward of England.
Natalie’s victory at the Manchester Games was particularly significant because she was presented the David Dixon Award for being the Outstanding Athlete of the Games. Natalie qualified to participate in the Manchester Games, becoming the first athlete with
a disability to have contested in the Games’ event. She proved herself as being an able bodied swimmer in the 800 metres freestyle event. After her success at the Manchester Games, Natalie has always displayed the best of her talent in all major national and
international events that she has contested to date.
For her, the Commonwealth race was very important as this was her final 50 metre event before her retirement. The South African swimmer has announced her retirement after the 2012 London Olympic Games. Talking to the correspondents after the race, she said
that she absolutely satisfied with the way she is concluding her athletic career. She was more than pleased to have won the race since the victory did not come that easy. Annabelle and Natalie swam almost all the distance until the last five metres in which
Natalie edged the former. She barely managed to surpass her own record by 0.13 seconds, finishing the race in 29.17 seconds.
This was a sprint event. She confessed that sprint race is one the greatest challenges that she had to face during her athletic career. She went on to say that she has always found it difficult to manage her pace in the last 25 metres of the race. Natalie
added that the emerging athletes are doing a great job at the sprint events which is a very good thing for the sport. At the Commonwealth Games so far, the medal won by Natalie was the third gold medal won by a South African athlete.
In the men’s 200 metre butterfly race on the first day of the 19th Commonwealth Games, Chad le Clos won the gold medal. He had to struggle a bit to get this victory rolling, as he finished the race in 1 minute and 56.48 seconds while the runner
up managed to finish the race in 1 minute and 57.15 seconds. English swimmer Michael Rock made it to the second place on the podium.
Chad is just an 18-year-old swimmer and the winner of the gold medal at the Youth Olympics in Singapore this year. He is now being declared as the bright future of South Africa’s swimming arena. South Africa also claimed a bronze medal in the 4 into 100
metres freestyle relay event at the Games. Roland Schoeman and Darian Townsend teamed up with Gideon Louw and Graeme Moore to win away the bronze medal. The former duo is the winner of gold medal at the Summer Olympics of Athens in 2004.
South African athletes also gave brilliant performances in wrestling. In the Greco-Roman 74 kg category, Richard Addinall of South Africa won the silver medal while Hughes Bella-Lufi of South Africa claimed the bronze medal in the 96 kg category.
Team South Africa felt very proud when the two athletes won medals in the wrestling discipline since there was no South African contender for wrestling in the Commonwealth Games 2006, Melbourne.
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