-Press Statement-

A powerful squad of 115 athletes has been announced to represent South Africa at the 19th Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, India between 3-14 October this year.

South Africa’s Olympic governing body, SASCOC, made the team announcement at Olympic House in Johannesburg on Wednesday, 21 July 2010. A final amendment to the team is scheduled for 25 August.

This will be the fifth occasion that South Africa has been represented at the Commonwealth Games since re-joining the Commonwealth in 1994 after a break of 33 years during the international sports isolation period.

Speaking at the announcement, SASCOC president Gideon Sam wished the team well and urged them to give of their very best. “The message to the team remains. All we have to do is to improve on our fifth position at the last Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia four years ago and equal or improve our medals tally.

“This will be an excellent test of whether our policy of ‘only the best’ will show results. We have included team sports that will make the size of the team look big, but it will still be a far cry from the big team that represented us in Melbourne.”

The South African team of 2006 was one of the largest in Melbourne.

“The performance of this team will also give us an indication of how well we are doing on the road to the London Olympics in 2012. We expect good performances from both the swimmers and the track and field athletes with good contributions from the bowls team as well,” said Sam.

A total of 17 sports will be contested at the Games: Archery, Aquatics, Athletics, Badminton, Boxing, Cycling, Gymnastics, Hockey, Lawn Bowls, Netball, Rugby Sevens, Shooting, Squash, Table Tennis, Tennis, Weightlifting and Wrestling.

Since their return to the Commonwealth, South Africa have never finished lower than 12th on the medals table. Their first Commonwealth Games after isolation were in Victoria, British Colombia where they won 11 medals to place 12th.

In Melbourne 2006 they were fifth on the medals table, winning a total of 38 medals (12 gold, 13 silver and 13 bronze) and finishing behind Australia, England, India and Canada. South Africa’s gold medals came from swimming (five), track and field (five) and one each from boxing and shooting.

The South African team of Hockey Athletes and officials that will do duty at the 19th Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, India between 3-14 October are:

Hockey (women): Tarryn Bright, Dirkie Chamberlain, Lisa-Marie Deetliefs, Farah Fredericks, Lesle-Ann George, Kim Hubach, Marcelle Keet, Kelly Madsen, Vuyisanani Mangisa, Marsha Marescia, Mariette Rix, Lenise Marais, Kathleen Taylor, Nicolene Terblanche, Roxanne Turner, Jennifer Wilson. Manager: Luntu Ntloko. Coach: Giles Bonnett. Assistant coach: Fabian Gregory.

Hockey (men): Brendan Botes, Gareth Carr, Tim Drummond, Ian Haley, Rhett Halkett, Thomas Hammond, Marvin Harper, Julian Hykes, Lance Louw, Lloyd Madsen, Lloyd Norris-Jones, Wade Paton, Taine Paton, Erasmus Pieterse, Justin Reid-Ross, Austin Smith. Manager: Anton van Rooyen. Coach: Gregg Clark. Assistant coach: David Viney.

Medical team
Doctors
Chief Medical Officer: Shuiab Manjra. Doctors: Demitri Constantinou, Jo-Anne Kirby Physiotherapists Chief

Physiotherapist:
Chief Physiotherapist: Caren Fleishman. Physiotherapists: Megan Dutton, Tamlyn Guest, Grace Hughes, Fikile Phasha, Tanushree Pillay, Sandhya Silal, Edwin Bodha, Nhlanhla Maphanga, David van Wyk

-End of Press Statement-