Tatjana Schoenmaker and Kaylene Corbett qualify for the Tokyo Olympics 200-meter breaststroke final.
Tokyo, Japan (29 July 2021) – South Africa’s swimming sensation Tatjana Schoenmaker has won her 200m breaststroke semi-final and will face off with American great Lily King and Britain’s Molly Renshaw for the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics. Kaylene Corbett, also from South Africa, will compete in the finals too.
That’s after both Schoenmaker and Corbett won their respective 200m breaststroke semifinals this morning. Corbett powered ahead of her opposition in the final 10m of her semifinal to win in another personal best time of 2:22.08, while Schoenmaker won the second semi in a blistering 2:19.33.
Both will now swim for their first gold medal in the finals that will take place at 03:38 CAT tomorrow morning.
Yesterday, Schoenmaker clocked the second-fastest 200m breaststroke time ever.
She was under world-record pace for much of her heat and only missed it by a fingertip, touching in 2:19.16, a new Olympic mark.
The other South African in the pool this morning, 18-year-old Matthew Sates, made a strong start to the men’s 200m individual medley semi-final, taking second place after the first 50m.
Swimming: Men’s 200m IM, Heats: Birthday boy Matthew Sates, who turned 18 today, finished 5th in his heat in 1:58.08 and qualified for the semi-finals in 15th position. Well done young man 👏👏#TeamSA #Tokyo2020
— Team South Africa (@TeamSA2020) July 28, 2021