BLAST FROM THE PAST | Okkert Brits vaults to silver at world champs in Paris

1965 — Peter Pollock finishes with 5/43 as South Africa bowl out England for 202 in the third Test at the Oval.

1971 — Mavis Hutchison, 46 at the time, becomes the first South African woman to run for 24 hours, completing a world best 106 miles and 736 yards at Hector Norris Park in Johannesburg South. Hutchison, who went on to achieve multi-day runs from Johannesburg to Durban and Germiston to Cape Town, was later dubbed the Galloping Granny after running the breadth of the US in 1978. Her effort of 2,908 miles took her 69 days, two hours and 40 minutes stood as a record until 1993. In 1980 she broke the record running the length of Britain, 874 miles from John O’Groats to Land’s End, in 16 days, 21 hours and 55 minutes, more than nine hours better than the previous mark.

1977 — Jody Scheckter finishes third in the Dutch Grand Prix behind Austrian legend Niki Lauda. In 10th place was Scheckter’s older brother Ian. While Jody would go on to world championship glory, this was Ian’s best result in 18 F1 starts. He never secured a championship point.

1983 — South African-born Sydney Maree breaks the world 1,500m record in Cologne, cutting 12-hundredths of a second off Steve Ovett’s mark that had stood for exactly three years and one day. Maree, running under the US flag, clocked 3min 31.24sec in front of 60,000 cheering fans just weeks after a disappointing performance at the world championships where had failed to make the final. Briton Ovett took the record back a week later.

1999 — Hawk Makepula knocks out Jose Laureano of Puerto Rico in the first round at the Carousel casino to defend his marginal WBU junior-flyweight title.

2003 — Okkert Brits takes silver at the world championships in Paris as he launches himself to 5.85m in the pole vault to finish 5cm behind Italian victor Giuseppe Gibilisco, claiming the only global medal of his career. Patrik Kristiansson of Sweden cleared the same distance as Brits, but ended third on countback.

2004 — High-jumper Hestrie Cloete and 800m runner Mbulaeni Mulaudzi give South Africa a silver send-off at the Athens Olympics as they reach the podium within an hour or so of each other. Both ended second in their events behind Russian competitors. For Cloete, the reigning two-time world champion, it was her second consecutive Olympic silver. The two gongs pushed South Africa’s overall tally to six, the country’s biggest haul since the 10 medals won at Helsinki 1952.

2004 — Shaun Pollock strikes an unbeaten 52 to lift South Africa to 235/7 in the fourth ODI against Sri Lanka in Dambulla, but it doesn’t help the visitors as they crash to their fourth straight defeat, losing by seven wickets.

2010 — The Springboks win their only Tri-Nations match of the year, beating Australia 44-31 in a try-fest at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria. Both sides scored five tries, but flyhalf Morne Steyn made the difference, converting four tries and landing two penalties. Butch James added one conversion and Frans Steyn a penalty.

2012 — Hashim Amla scores 150 off 124 balls as the Proteas thrash England by 80 runs in the second ODI in Southampton.