Adidas South Africa Pro Elite 2019 Running Cap

Three Crowns, Zero Medals

South Africa sent 27 athletes to the World Championships in Doha in the autumn of 2019 — 22 men and five women, entered in 19 events — and came home with nothing. Two years earlier, in London, the same team had finished third in the medal table with six medals, three of them gold. The fall from three golds to zero is the story of this season, and almost none of it happened in Doha itself.

What the team delivered in Qatar was a string of fourth and fifth places that read like a punishment. Akani Simbine ran 9.93 — a season's best, in a world final — and finished fourth in the 100 metres. Luvo Manyonga, the defending champion, was fourth in the long jump at 8.28, with Ruswahl Samaai fifth at 8.23. The 4×100 relay of Thando Dlodlo, Simon Magakwe, Clarence Munyai and Simbine ran an African record 37.65 in the heats and then finished fifth in the final in 37.73.

The championships

World Championships, Doha, 27 Sep – 6 Oct 2019 — 27 athletes, 19 events

The result

0 medals — after 6 (3 gold) and third place in London 2017

The eternal fourth

Simbine: 4th in the 100 m final with 9.93 (SB) — he was 4th at the next two Olympics too

The long jump

Manyonga 4th (8.28) · Samaai 5th (8.23) — two in the top five, no medal