Schoenmaker bags a second Olympic record
After her silver medal in the 100 metre breast stroke
earlier in the week, South African swimming ace Tatjana Schoenmaker continued
her fine form as she broke another Olympic record in her 200 metre breaststroke
heat earlier today.
The 200 metre breaststroke is Schoenmaker’s strongest event and she went into the heats as the number one seed and didn’t disappoint when she dipped below the 2:20 second mark with a heat time of 2:19.15.
Schoenmaker’s swim on Wednesday was just 0.5 of a second off the world record held by Rikke Moller Pedersen – set eight years ago in Barcelona.
The flyer from Gauteng was nearly three seconds quicker than the second fastest qualifier, United States of America’s swimmer Lilly King who finished in 2:22.10 through the 200 metres.
Her result sees her head into the semi-final and hopefully the final as the resounding favourite however there is a strong chance that she won’t be the only South African fighting it out for a medal.
Young Kaylene Corbett is also through to the semi-final of the 200 metre breaststroke event after she clocked the fourth fastest time in the heats to book her place in the final sixteen.
It wasn’t a strong day for Team South Africa on Wednesday with 2012 gold medallist Chad le Clos finishing fifth in the men’s 200 metre butterfly final.
Young St Charles pupil Matthew Sates is through to the semi-finals of the men’s 200m individual medley but the women’s 4x200m freestyle relay team failed to qualify for the final.
Erin Gallagher and Martin Binedell both couldn’t get through their heats in the women’s 100m freestyle and men’s 200m backstroke respectively.
Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio finished eighth in the women’s road cycling time trial while his male counterpart Stefan de Bod ended in twelfth.
The men’s rugby sevens side redeemed themselves after their shock loss to Argentina to finish fifth with wins over Australia and the United States.
The women’s hockey side went down 5-0 to the Netherlands while the women’s water polo team, in their first Olympic Games, lost to Canada 21-1.
