Former South African all-rounder Sunnette Viljoen clinches silver in Rio

It is not every day that a women’s cricketer becomes the talk of the town in the Rio Olympics. However, this once in a lifetime incident occurred when Sunnette Viljoen bagged a silver medal in the 2016 edition of the Olympic Games on Thursday in the javelin final. The 33-year old hurled an astonishing distance as she finished second behind Croatia’s Sara Kolak, with her best throw of 64.92 metres compared to Kolak’s 66.18 metres.

Sunnette Viljoen’s medal now puts South Africa in 34th position after she successfully clinched the ninth medal for South Africa. However, this is not the first Olympic Games the 33-year old is taking part in. She had come tantalizingly close to claiming a medal in the 2012 games in London and finished in the fourth position behind Germany’s Linda Stahl, who finished third with 64.91. Her best throw in the games at the time was 64.53 meters.

The official Twitter account of the South African contingent at the Rio Games tweeted the good news early this morning. Their tweet read: “Javelin: Sunette Viljoen takes SILVER, brilliant effort, another medal, congratulations Sunette #teamSArise”

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Javelin: Sunette Viljoen takes SILVER, brilliant effort, another medal, congratulations Sunette #teamSArise

— TeamSouthAfrica (@teamsa17) August 19, 2016

Sunette Viljoen is a part of the South African cricketing outfit as well. She was a part of the team in an all-rounder capacity and had added balance to the side, especially given her supreme athletic build as well as her decent fielding prowess. She made her debut in a Test match against India in 2000 at Paarl and had made an impact with the bat by scoring a well-made 71 in the second innings. She had made her ODI debut in 2000 and finished her ODI career two years later with 198 runs and five wickets.