Oscar Pistorius made history on Saturday, finishing second in his first-round heat in the men's 400 metres sprint, to become the first amputee athlete to compete on the track at the Olympic Games.

Pistorius qualified automatically in the first of seven heats for Sunday night's semi-finals in London.

The South African women's hockey team will have to be content with a bottom-half finish to their Olympic campaign after losing 1-0 to Australia in their penultimate pool B contest in London on Saturday.

The loss ensured South Africa would not be able to compete for a semi-final place as they remained winless after four games and in danger of losing all their pool games at the London Games.

SA ended the match having created more scoring opportunities (11) compared to the Aussies' seven, but were unfortunate not to be rewarded for arguably their best performance of the Games thus far.

The South Africans conclude their campaign against the US on Monday.

South African track cyclist Bernard Esterhuizen qualified for the men's sprint event, where he was defeated by German rider Robert Forstemann, who eliminated the South African from the event, bringing an end to Esterhuizen's Olympic sprint campaign after the first round.

Gillian Sanders completed the women's triathlon final in a time of two hours, two minutes and 28 seconds (2:02:28), leaving her in 19th position, nearly three minutes behind Swiss winner Nicola Spirig (1:59:48).

Fellow South African athlete Kate Roberts finished behind Sanders in 22nd place in a time of 2:02:46.