The SA team got off to a poor start on the athletics track after their countrymen had shone in the pool earlier in the week.

One-lap hurdlers LJ van Zyl and Cornel Fredericks were both knocked out in the first round of the men's 400 metres hurdles.

Van Zyl, the 2011 World Championships bronze medallist who has struggled with a knee injury this season, faded in the finishing straight to cross the line sixth in his heat, in 50.31 seconds.

Fredericks, fifth at last year's global championships, looked flat from the start and trailed home in eighth pace in his heat in 52.29.

Meanwhile, in the pool, SA swimmers flopped in all their races.

Trudi Maree, Heerden Herman and the men's 4x100 medley relay team were dumped out in the first round of their respective events.

Maree finished eighth in her 50m freestyle heat in 25.78 seconds and failed in her attempt to qualify for the semi-finals.

Herman was sixth in his 1 500m freestyle heat in 15 minutes, 25.71 seconds (15:25.71) and was unable to qualify for the final.

The relay quartet -- consisting of individual gold medallists Cameron van der Burgh and Chad le Clos, as well as Charl Crous and Leith Shankland -- finished seventh in their heat in 3:35.23, missing out on a place in the final.