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Maputo - South Africa have collected 151 All-Africa Games medals with two days left of the multi-sport championships in Mozambique.
The tally of 60 gold, 52 silver and 39 bronze was close to twice that of second-place Nigeria, who picked up 80 medals.
A 200-strong South African team was particularly successful in water sports, including swimming, sailing and canoeing, but sent few athletes to compete at the Zimpeto National Stadium.
They managed a mere 15 medals on the track while the Nigerians collected 17 gold, 11 silver and 10 bronze.
Diamond League obligations in Europe reduced the strength of the South African athletics team, delegation leader Barry Hendrickse said.
"But don't take the glory away from the other sporting codes," he stressed. "All came to the party and all delivered."
As the quadrennial 'African Olympics' wound down, North African countries Egypt, Tunisia and Algeria completed the top five on the medals table.
Tennis, basketball, handball, taekwondo, and judo finals on Saturday were not expected to change the table much.
Egypt took gold in both chess competitions, beating South Africa and Angola for the men's title and Algeria and South Africa in the women's competition.
Cameroon pipped Senegal 5-4 on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the men's football play-off for third place.
The Central Africans are going home for the first time in four Games without the gold medals, but coach Dieudonne Nke said he was happy "just to be on the podium".
Hugue Djika put Cameroon ahead on 46 minutes and Emmanuel Gomis equalised as the match entered the closing stages.
The shoot-out was settled when Joseph Leke Asong saved from Dame Diop.
Algeria outplayed South Africa 3-0 in the women's bronze medals play-off.
Dalila Zerrouki opened the scoring within six minutes of the kick-off, Naima Bouhani added a second soon after half-time and a Diamila Marek goal on 72 minutes completed the rout.
