Tatjana Schoenmaker bags sensational gold for SA
Tatjana Schoenmaker completed her ascension as the queen of South African swimming after she smashed the African 200m breaststroke record to claim the Commonwealth title in the Australian Gold Coast.
She became the first female swimmer since Delhi 2010 to win a medal at the Commonwealth Games when she hit the wall in a time of 2:22.02.
Schoenmaker chopped more than a second off Suzaan van Bijon’s continental record she set at the London 2012 Olympic Games.
The Pretoria swimmer took the race by the scruff of the neck and after the second lap she seemed to lose her hold but came back strongly to win the title.
She touched ahead of England’s Molly Renshaw in 2:23.28 and Chloe Tutton of Wales in 2:23.42.
Schoenmaker broke Penny Heyns’ South African 50m breaststroke record from 1999 the day before when she knocked 0.01 off the previous mark in the final with a time of 30.82 to finish fourth.
IOL Sport