Tatjana Schoenmaker and her coach, Rocco Meiring, know how to plan for the big events. This became evident when, after a slump in her performances since her glory at the 2021 Olympic Games, she won two medals at the World Aquatics Championships in Japan last week.

Schoenmaker added 200m breaststroke gold to her 100m silver to become the first South African woman in history to win a world title.

The 26-year-old Olympic champion had been fastest through the semifinals of the event and made sure she finished out in front again in the final, reaching the wall in 2:20.80.

American Kate Douglass was second in 2:21.23 with Dutchwoman Tes Schouten claiming the bronze in a time of 2:21.63.

An emotional Schoenmaker admitted she has had a tough time since winning Olympic gold in the same event two years ago, but the former world record holder proved she is well and truly back, producing her fastest 200m breaststroke time since that famous race in Tokyo.

“I think it was unexpected – that is why there is so much emotion because coming into this meet, I was not really ranked in the top three in any of my events. My times have not been as great since the Olympics,” she said.

According to Schoenmaker she just wanted to pitch up and not be scared to take on the opportunity to race some of the other swimmers.

“I just wanted to come and see where I am personally and I didn’t expect to walk away with any medal,” she remarked.

Despite Penny Heyns’s phenomenal Olympic success and her numerous world records, the former breaststroker never won a medal at the World Championships. Schoenmaker was the first to do so in claiming 200m breaststroke silver at the 2019 event before Lara van Niekerk collected 50m breaststroke bronze last year. This is the first time a South African woman has topped the podium at the event, however, and bodes well for Schoenmaker’s Olympic title defence in Paris next year.

– Meanwhile the other swimming star from Pretoria, Lara van Niekerk, missed out on earning a medal at the same Championships in Japan by just five hundredths of a second on Sunday as the swimming action came to an end.

The 20-year-old suffered another bad start in her 50m breaststroke final, the slowest of the field, and was playing catch-up for the entire length of the pool.

She did well to claw her way back into contention but eventually had to settle for fourth spot after finishing in a time of 30.09 seconds.

“The race did not quite go as planned. Again, the start was a bit of an issue but the swimming was really good. The closing speed in the last 25m was top class but she just ran out of space. Still, overall, fourth place in the world – we can’t complain too much. I think it was a good race and a good comeback from the big problem with the start in the heats and I think that maybe would have been playing on her mind a little bit still as well,” said Van Niekerk’s coach Eugene da Ponte after the final.

Van Niekerk was South Africa’s only medallist at last year’s World Championships in Budapest after claiming bronze in the 50m breaststroke. On that occasion, she swam 29.77 seconds in the heats and 29.90 in the final before heading to the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham where she claimed double gold – in the 50 and 100m breaststroke.

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