South Africa will be represented by a team of just four swimmers at the FINA World Short Course Championships in Abu Dhabi. Photo: Team SA website
WATCH | Tatjana Schoenmaker gets ‘shosholoza’ welcome from Team SA
Tatjana Schoenmaker has received a rousing – and well-deserved – welcome from her Team SA compatriots at the Olympic Village in Tokyo
South Africa will be represented by a team of just four swimmers at the FINA World Short Course Championships in Abu Dhabi. Photo: Team SA website
South Africa’s golden swimming star Tatjana Schoenmaker received a rousing – and well-deserved – welcome from her Team SA compatriots at the Olympic Village in Tokyo on Friday.
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Earlier in the day, the 24-year-old won South Africa’s first – and only at this stage – gold medal of the delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics when she smashed the women’s 200m breaststroke world record in touching the wall first.
Schoenmaker posted 2:18.95 which was 0.16 quicker than Denmark’s Rikke Moller Pedersen’s old mark.
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The medal was South Africa’s 89th of all time and the 20th won in swimming since 1904.
It was also the first medal of any colour by a South African female swimmer since the bronze picked up by Penny Heyns in the 100m breaststroke at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
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Tatjana Schoenmaker matched Heyns in winning the 200m breaststroke gold at an Olympic Games as the latter did in 1996 in Atlanta.
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Earlier in the week, Schoenmaker took the silver in the 100m breaststroke.
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Watch below as chants of “shosholoza” greeted Schoenmaker as she arrived back at the Team SA Olympic Village.
