Ballito’s 400m runner, Zakithi Nene had his first taste of Olympic competition this morning, racing in the individual 400m heats at 3.53am (SA time) in Tokyo. 

He ran a respectable 45.74s, finishing 5th in his heat and just missed out on moving through to the semi-finals which are set to begin at 1.05pm tomorrow. 

The final will be held at 2pm on Thursday, August 5.

Also in action during the 400m heats were Thapelo Phora and world record holder, Wayde van Niekerk.

Phora finished 5th in his heat with a time of 45.83s, also missing out on qualifying.

Van Niekerk looked calm in his heat, but was forced to work for 3rd place and automatic qualification in a time of 45.25s.

Combined, the South African performances should bode well for the 4x400m competition which gets underway on Friday, August 6 at 1.25pm.

Also in action today are 3 South Africa 100m runners.

After a strong qualifying round yesterday, all 3 South African entrants, Gift Leotlela, Shaun Maswanganyi and Akani Simbine have made it through to the semi-finals.

They run in separate semi-finals today at 12.15pm, 12.23pm and 12.31pm respectively.

The final will be held at 2.50pm today.

As things stand, South Africa has 1 gold medal and 2 silver medals, with athletes hoping to add to the medal tally over the next week.