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South Africa celebrates Oosthuizen victory

(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-07-19 11:49

South Africa's Louis Oosthuizen holds his trophy aloft after winning the British Open Golf Championship on the Old Course at St. Andrews, Scotland, Sunday,July 18, 2010. [Agencies]

JOHANNESBURG - Top South African politicians said Sunday that Louis Oosthuizen had done his country proud with his spectacular seven-stroke victory in the British Open.

Minister of Sport Makhenkesi Stofile and the country's ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC), said Oosthuizen's victory earlier in the day at St. Andrews underlined South Africa's credentials as a winning nation in sport.

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"Coming only days after we had successfully hosted the 2010 FIFA World Cup, Louis Oosthuizen's win of the British Open golf championship in Scotland makes us really proud," Stofile said.

"Coupled with Caster Semenya's return to winning ways at the athletics championships in Finland, Oosthuizen's win shows that we are not just champion hosts."

Semenya, the women's 800 meter world champion, won her second consecutive comeback race in Finland on Sunday after being cleared by the International Association of Athletics Federations to return to competition following gender tests.

Semenya won her first comback event in Finland last Thursday, having not raced competitively since winning the world title in Berlin in August 2009.

The ANC was equally delighted with Oosthuizen's triumph in Scotland.

"This shows that besides hosting soccer and cricket international tournaments successfully, we are an excelling sporting nation," ANC spokesman Jackson Mthembu said.

"Louis Oosthuizen's victory shows clearly that South Africa has the capacity to do other things and do them successfully, we are really proud of his performance."