The opening ceremony which had no spectators in attendance celebrated that history and culture of Japan while also paying tribute to Olympian past and present.

South Africa's most decorated Olympian, Chad le Clos, and the goalkeeper of the South African hockey team, Phumelela Mbande, were Team South Africa’s flagbearers.

South Africa will be competing in 17 of the 33 sporting codes on display. South Africa’s biggest medal hopes will be in athletics, swimming, rowing, sevens rugby and in the triathlon.

South Africans in action on Saturday (SA times in brackets):

Cycling
Men’s Road Race – 11am (4.00am): The cyclists will tackle the most mountainous Olympics road race course in decades, with five major climbs on the 240km route between Musashinonomori Park and the Fuji International Speedway. Slovenia hold a strong hand with the likes of Primoz Roglic and Tadej Pogacar, while Belgium include Wout Van Aert and Greg Van Avermaet. South Africa’s three-man team is Ryan Gibbons, Nicholas Dlamini and Stefan de Bod.

Hockey
Men’s Pool B – 6.30pm (11.30am): South Africa vs Great Britain. Belgium are looking to become the fourth country to win the Olympic title as reigning world champions. They are in this group, along with Netherlands, Canada and Germany

Women’s Pool A – 9.15pm (2.15pm): Ireland vs South Africa. It’s 8th in the world taking on 16th. Also in Pool A are Netherlands, India, Great Britain and Germany. TeamSA had a practice match against 13th-ranked Japan and only went down narrowly 1-0.

Judo
Women’s 48kg – Not before 11.50am (4.50am): South Africa’s Michaela Whitebooi, the only Judo player in the TeamSA squad, has been handed the toughest of draws against the reigning Olympic champion and current World Championship bronze medallist, Paula Pareto of Argentina.

Rowing
Men’s Pair, Heat 1 – 9.50am (2.50am): Luc Daffarn and Jake Green will race in lane one, against Serbia, Netherlands, Romania and Spain. The first three will progress to semi-finals A and B, with the remainder going to the repechage.

Men’s Four, Heat 1 – 11.40m (4.40am): Great Britain have won the men’s four at each of the past five Olympic Games (2000-2016), already the longest winning run by a country in this event.  Lawrence Brittain, Kyle Schoonbee, John Smith and Sandro Torrente take off from lane one against Australia, Romania, Netherlands and United States. The first two will progress to final A, with the remaining crews to the repechage.

Swimming
Women’s 100m butterfly, Heat 3 – 7.30pm (12.30pm): Erin Gallagher takes off in the third heat of five from lane seven. She has a qualification entry time of 57.67sec. The fastest 16 from the 34 swimmers across the heats progress to the semi-finals.

Men’s 100m breaststroke, Heat 4 – 8.32pm (1.32pm): Michael Houlie is the fastest entrant in this heat with a 59.64sec time, which gives him the preferred lane four. World record holder from the 2019 World Championships, Britain’s Adam Peaty, swims in the final heat at 1.40am. The fastest 16 qualifiers from the heats go through to the semi-finals.

Waterpolo
Women’s Group A, preliminary round – 6.20pm (11.20am): South Africa vs Spain. South Africa make their debut at the Olympics captained by Jordan Wedderburn. The country’s women have never been represented at the Games. Also in this group are Canada, Australia and Netherlands.

@MorganPiek OFM Sport and SASCOC