Schoenmaker leads SA medal hopes on Olympics opening weekend
South African swimmer Tatjana Schoenmaker set a new Olympic world record in the 100m breaststroke heats in a weekend that saw her compatriots have less luck.
The 24-year-old sped to victory in heat 5 in a time of 1:04.82, writing her name into Olympic records book as she became the swimmer to beat in Monday’s semi-finals.
The SA men’s hockey side will be kicking themselves for letting a 3-nil lead slip to the Netherlands, as they eventually lost 5-3 in their second match of Tokyo 2020.
The SA U23 football team went down to France 4-3 in their first match of the tournament, with Andre-Pierre Gignac scoring a hat trick which included the match winner in extra time.
Ashley Moolman-Pasio managed a 13th place finish in the women’s cycling road race, while Carla Oberholzer did not finish despite leading for a section of the event.
Meanwhile in the Olympic surfing competition, SA’s Bianca Buitendag secured a spot in the last 16, where she’ll go head to head with Australia’s Stephanie Gilmore on Monday. Brandon Valjalo also featured in the men's street skateboarding heats, finishing 18th which ruled him out of the final, while Japan's Yuto Horigome took home Gold for the host nation.
Further afield 11-time NBA All-Star Kevin Durant’s USA team were beaten by France in a big basketball upset. The result means the USA have a lot to do to stay in the competition, or risk missing out on a seventh consecutive Olympic gold.
World tennis no 1 Ashleigh Barty suffered a first round exit at the Olympics - but she’ll still feature in the doubles, while Japan's second seed Naomi Osaka secured a straight sets win in her first match.