May's Biggest Sports Stories

SA Thrives and Chiefs Break Drought

By Koketso Mamabolo

South Africa Dominates World Relay Championship

Team South Africa topped the medal table at the World Relay Championship in Guangzhou, China with three medals, two gold and one bronze on the 11th of May with impressive performances from both the men’s and women’s teams.

In the 4 x 100m South Africa had a star-studded line-up which included teenage sensation Bayanda Walaza - who is the reigning U20 100m and 200m world champion - and veteran Akani Simbine, who set a world leading time of 9.90 in the 100m in Gaborone earlier this year. Simbine has been in great form, winning the Diamond League opener in Xiamen, China and beating Olympic silver medalist Kishane Thompson for a first place finish in Keqiao near Shanghai a short while before the World Relay Championship.

Walaza, Simbine and Bradley Nkoana were part of South Africa’s 4 x 100m silver medal winning team at the Paris Olympics and were joined at the Relay Championship by another young sprinter, 200m specialist Sinesipho Dambile. Simbine reeled in the Americans on the anchor leg to cross the line in a world leading time of 37.61 which ensured the teams qualification for the World Track and Field Championship in Tokyo later this year.

The women’s 4 x 400m team broke the national record twice, once in the heats and again in the final (3:24:84) to finish third behind Spain and the US, qualifying for Tokyo in the process. Zeney van der Walt ran the anchor leg in a quartet which also included Shirley Nekhubli, Miranda Coetzee and Precious Melepo. The men’s 4 x 400m team (Gaerdo Isaacs, Udeme Okon, Leenert Koekemoer and Zakhithi Nene) also qualified for the World Championships after finishing first in their final with a time of 2:57:50.

Blitzboks Prove Defence Wins Championships

Despite a win at home in Cape Town, a second place finish in Vancouver, and second place finish in Dubai, the Blitzboks were perhaps not everyone’s favourites to win the World Championship in Los Angeles, the final event of the 2024/25 HSBC SVNS calendar. The quarter-final exit in Dubai dashed the hopes of a seventh tournament win running but when the lights were brightest the Blitzboks it seemed inevitable that, “cometh the hour, cometh the man.”

Veteran Selvyn Davids, who was named Player of the Final, ran eighty metres from a Blitzboks scrum to open their account in the 19 -5 win over Spain, who are a rising force in the sevens circuit under the guidance of head coach Francisco “Paco” Hernández and captain Pol Pla, who scored their only try.

From the first whistle at Dignity Health Sports Park, head coach Phillip Snyman, a Blitzbok legend as a player, would have been pleased with his speed and intensity in the tackle, with the one-two punch being completed by the blistering pace and agility Davids showed to score the try that gave the Blitzboks a halftime lead of 7-0 with Ronald Brown adding the extras with a clean conversion.

Spain’s talisman responded in the 10th minute but Mfundo Ndhlovu gathered a bouncing ball to score a try which took the lead to two scores. A yellow card for Zander Reynders should have opened up gaps in South Africa’s six man defence but their defensive patterns, discipline and accuracy made it impossible for the Spaniards to make any headway. Ricardo Duarttee went over in the corner in the dying seconds wrapping up an unbeaten run in LA and South Africa’s second title on the circuit this season.

“The team never stopped believing,” said Snyman after the win. “They played five phenomenal games and were unstoppable. This team can go places. I am very proud of them.”

Kaizer Chiefs End Drought

After a decade without a trophy Kaizer Chiefs finally have something to take home to Naturena after beating arch rivals Orland Pirates 2-1 in the Nedbank Cup final at Moses Mabhida Stadium, thanks to an early penalty by Uruguayan winger Gastón Sirinio and big match temperament style stunner from captain Yusuf Maart. Nasreddinne Nabi’s side will be even happier after losing the last Soweto Derby, less than two weeks before, and knowing they defeated league contenders Stellenbosch FC and Mamelodi Sundowns on the road to the final.

Evidence Makgopa’s equaliser was enough to get Pirates supporters hopes up until Maart made it a race to the finish with ten minutes left in South Africa’s greatest football rivalry. The win booked them a ticket back into continental competition with a place in the CAF Confederations Cup.

“After we conceded the equaliser to Pirates we had a bit of worry that mentally we’d collapse, as it was in the previous games, but we got through our tough moments until halftime where we tried to reorganise ourselves, to be more compact.”

While Nabi acknowledged how much winning a trophy means, he emphasised that the side is still in the rebuilding process, and completing the process is his main objective.

“I’m happy for this trophy today because maybe it has helped me to continue my process. And maybe it has helped to give more confidence to the fans,” coach Nabi told journalists after the match. “Obviously, we have to agree that it wasn’t a very nice final, not very entertaining but, you know, in these kind [sic] of finals, you don’t play it, you win it.”

What's On In June

Cricket

ICC Men’s World Test Championship Final:

Proteas Men vs Australia - 11 - 15 June

South Africa Women in West Indies

West Indies Women vs Proteas Women - 1st ODI - 11 June

West Indies Women vs Proteas Women - 2nd ODI - 14 June

West Indies Women vs Proteas Women - 3rd ODI - 17 June

West Indies Women vs Proteas Women - 1st T20 - 20 June

West Indies Women vs Proteas Women - 2nd T20 - 22 June

West Indies Women vs Proteas Women - 3rd T20 - 23 June

South Africa Men in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe Men vs Proteas Men - 1st Test - 28 June - 2 July

Football

FIFA Club World Cup

Ulsan HD vs Mamelodi Sundowns - 18 June

Mamelodi Sundowns vs Dortmund - 21 June

Rugby

British & Irish Lions Australia Tour 2025

British & Irish Lions vs Argentina - 20 June

Western Force vs British & Irish Lions - 28 June

World Rugby U20 Championship

Australia vs Junior Springboks - 29 June

Source: SA Rugby | Rugby Pass | World Rugby | eNCA | News24 | Supersport