South Africa’s super swimmer, Tatjana Schoenmaker, claimed South Africa’s first gold medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games with a world record swim in the women’s 200m breaststroke.
Schoenmaker, fresh from a silver in the 100m, went one better this morning with a stunning swim at a new WR pace of 2:18.95. Her emotional response after she saw her winning time was a picture that spoke a thousand words as South Africans from all spectrums of society shared in her joy.
Schoenmaker beat Americans, Lilly King (2:19.92) and Annie Lazor (2:20.84) in a memorable swim where she kept a superb pace in the first three lengths before overtaking King in the final 50 metres. She pulled away in the last 20 metres and pushed the pace to beat an 8 year old World Record.
The previous record holder was Denmark’s, Rikke Moller Pedersen (2:19.11), who set the previous record in Barcelona in 2013.
This gold medal performance from Schoenmaker is sure to set the standard for other medal contenders for SA.
