Select Page

South Africa clinches gold medals at the African State Bowls

The triumphant South African men’s bowls team.

The triumphant South African men’s bowls team.

South Africa demonstrated why they are the best bowls nation on the African continent when their men’s and women’s team clinched the gold medal at the Pairs and Triples events respectively at the African States Tournament (AST).
After the men from the Cape of Good Hope had successfully triumphed over their opposition on Wednesday afternoon, their female team mates made their gold medal perfect this morning. In the triples discipline, the South African ladies had already won before the last round. In their last game they came up against Zimbabwe, losing that the encounter 14:21, yet still staying at the top. In the pairs discipline, South Africa and Zimbabwe faced each other in the last round and both nations were equal on points when they went head to head at the Windhoek Country Club.
Bronwyn Webber and Sylvia Burns defeated Jane Rigby and Melanie Fay James with 25:12 and therefore finishing at the very top. The Namibian Triples team of Marietjie du Preez, Sheena du Toit and Charlotte Morland as well as the Pairs duo of Marie van der Merwe and Diana Viljoen only managed to win one game each. Meanwhile the Namibian men’s team won silver medals in both the Triples as well as the Pairs events. Although both teams lost their last game to South Africa, their accumulated points of the previous games were enough to place them second. In the Pairs discipline, both Namibia and arch rivals South Africa went into the last game equal on points. Both nations displayed world class bowls, giving the fans at the Eros Bowling Club exactly what they came to see. After a nerve wrecking game, Rudi Jacobs and Robert Donnelly from the Cape managed to edge out their Namibian counterparts Jean Viljoen and Will Esterhuizen by 20:12. The Namibian Triples trio of Graham Snyman, Ewald Vermeulen and Axel Krahenbühl were under pressure in their final game after they had surprisingly lost to Kenya the day before. Namibia eventually lost to the South Africans with 22:12, but in a turn of events Zimbabwe narrowly defeated Kenya with 15:10. All three nations ended up with 8 points, Namibia only clinching the second place due to a better shot difference.

About The Author