Another Olympic record for Tatjana Schoenmaker

Tatjana Schoenmaker set her second Olympic record of the Tokyo Games as she torpedoed through the 200m breaststroke heats in 2min 19.16sec on Wednesday night.

She was just five-hundredths of a second outside the eight-year-old world mark, and as soon as she saw her time on the results board she beamed and then shed a few tears.

Schoenmaker, who took the 100m breaststroke silver on Tuesday, was nearly three seconds quicker than her nearest rival, Lilly King of the US who went 2:22.10.

Russian Evgenila Chikunova was third quickest in 2:22.16 and then Schoenmaker’s training partner, Kaylene Corbett, posted the fourth best time of the heats, 2:22.48, which was a massive personal best.

Corbett, eighth at the 2019 world championships, is only the third SA swimmer in Tokyo to have advanced beyond the heats, after Schoenmaker and Chad le Clos.

Schoenmaker broke the Olympic record in the 100m breaststroke, but slowed down in the semifinals and final.