Schoenmaker may not be in action at World Short Course Championship
According to her coach, Pretoria's new superstar swimmer, Tatjana Schoenmaker, is not ready to participate in the Fina World Swimming Championships later this year.
In spite of qualifying in all three breaststroke events, local swimming star Tatjana Schoenmaker from TuksSwimming will in all probability not compete in December at the Fina World Short Course Swimming Championships in Hangzhou, China.
Rocco Meiring, her coach, said no final decision has been made, but he reiterated that Schoenmaker’s studies are at the moment her main priority.
Meiring said that they have not been doing the necessary training to ensure that Schoenmaker will be truly competitive over 25 metres.
“Our focus should have been more on power and speed work, and that is not what we are focussing on at the moment. The other reality is that Tatjana is not a good short course swimmer. Her turns are not effective enough,” Meiring explained.
During the recent South African, Short Course Championships Schoenmaker won the 200m-breaststroke (2:18.93), the 100m-breaststroke (1:05.12) as well as the 50m-breaststroke (30.39). Her effort in the 50 metres is a new South African record.
Meiring said the main aim during the national championships was to evaluate Schoenmaker to see where she is at after the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.
“I am satisfied with her performance over 200 metres. I was hoping she would be a little faster in the 100 metres. Tatjana and I have not spoken about the 50 metres. However, I was hoping she would dip under 30 seconds. Overall, I am satisfied especially considering that Tatjana’s personal life has slightly been in turmoil since she returned from the Commonwealth Games,” Meiring concluded.
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