JAPAN: South African swimmer Tatjana Schoenmaker won gold in the women’s 200-meter breaststroke at Tokyo Olympics on Thursday. Along with this, she achieved another spectacular feat that night. The swimmer set a new world record of 2:18.95.
Right from the beginning, Tatjana was the “crowd favorite”, so her victory didn’t come as a shock. However, for Tatjana setting a world record was quite surprising and it was evident by her reaction.
After finishing the race, Tatjana rested facing away from the pool, catching her breath after an exhausting swim. She went from perplexed to overjoy in a span of less than a second. All the other swimmers also joined her to celebrate her achievement.
Tatjana became the first South African female swimmer to win Gold in 25 years. She also became the first female South African swimmer to set a world record in the past 22 years.
The Olympics federation congratulated the swimmer in a tweet that read, “What. A. Moment. An unbelievable swim and a new World Record from Tatjana Schoenmaker in the women’s 200m breaststroke, handing #RSA their first gold medal of #Tokyo2020!”
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In her first race, Tatjana was defeated by American swimmer Lydia Jacoby who pulled off a stunning win in the 100-meter breaststroke.
But on Thursday, she slammed the door shut on any late charger attempting to catch her in the water, and swam the fastest race in history in the process.
