The 16-year-old Van Dyk delivered an outstanding performance in the men’s shot put. He qualified comfortably for the final after producing a throw of 19.09m in the morning session. He then saved his best for the evening, improving to a personal best of 19.80m to secure the bronze medal.

Brazil’s Alessandro Borges struck gold with a winning effort of 20.35m, while South Korea’s Si-hoon Park earned silver after reaching 20.31m.

Jaco van Dyk. Photo: Rita van Dyk

The South African mixed 4x400m relay team also impressed by rewriting the national U20 record twice in one day. Ryno Rikert, Zante van der Merwe, Abelines Schoeman and Isabella Gunter first clocked 3:22.12 in the heats to establish a new national junior record.

After Davida Strong replaced Van der Merwe for the final, the quartet produced an even faster performance, finishing sixth in 3:21.48 to lower the South African record once again.

Jan-Hendrik Heymans was among the standout performers in the field events after dominating the qualifying round of the men’s javelin. His best throw of 76.02m was the longest of the competition and more than six metres further than his nearest rival. Fellow South African Marques Olivier also progressed to the final after qualifying sixth overall with a throw of 68.77m.

Ashlynn Norman booked her place in the women’s long jump final by recording a best leap of 6.11m during qualifying.

On the track, Marko Ferreira continued his impressive form by winning his men’s 100m semi-final in 10.13 seconds to qualify for the final. Mukona Manavhela narrowly missed out on a place in the medal race, finishing fourth in his semi-final in 10.38 seconds, just one-hundredth of a second outside qualification.

Rume Burger also fell agonisingly short of the women’s 100m final. She crossed the line fourth in her semi-final in 11.53 seconds, missing qualification by just 0.06 seconds.

South Africa also enjoyed success in the middle-distance events. Werner Gouws finished third in his men’s 800m heat in 1:47.54, while Emil Els claimed third in his race in 1:51.11. Both athletes advanced to the semi-finals.

Carise van Rooyen matched that achievement in the women’s 800m, securing third place in her heat in 2:06.52 to progress to the next round.

The only other South African to compete in a final on the opening day was distance runner Njabulo Hlatshwayo, who finished 15th in the men’s 5,000m in a time of 14:13.90.

With one medal already secured and several athletes still in contention across both track and field events, Team South Africa made an encouraging start to the global championships.

OFM Sport/Morgan Piek sm