It was an emotional evening at the Sandwell Aquatics Centre in Birmingham on Sunday as Tatjana Schoenmaker and Kaylene Corbett were elated to share a podium, while Chad le Clos was devastated to settle for silver.
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Olympic champion Schoenmaker was in a league of her own on her way to defending her 200m breaststroke title, winning in a time of 2:21.92.
But it was teammate Corbett’s bronze in the same race that had the world record holder even more excited.
While Schoenmaker led throughout, a sensational final 50m of the race, saw Corbett powering from fifth spot to third, finishing in 2:23.67.
Gold??and bronze ??for #TeamSA swimmers - halala! ????????????@TRSchoenmaker and @kaylenecorbett, you brought joy to our hearts????.#B2022 #B2022Swimming #TeamSA @SwimSouthAfrica pic.twitter.com/YEfvyBty5m
— Team South Africa (@TeamSA2024) July 31, 2022
“I think I turned on the last 50 and I literally was like – God, please take the wheel,” said Corbett afterwards. “I gave everything, and I stood having an interview after the race and I could feel my knees buckling so I knew that was the best performance I could get out of myself.”
Schoenmaker said: “It’s obviously amazing. Four years ago, she was standing in the crowd and she’s always crying for me, so for me it was the happiest moment.
“I really didn’t care what my result was – I was so happy for her to win her first international medal and then the blessing was to share that podium,” she added after the teary medal ceremony.
Speaking of her own race, Schoenmaker admitted: “Obviously it wasn’t my best time, and I was actually really tired in that race so I wouldn’t say it was the best race, but I just went out there and gave it my best and God did the rest.
“I’m so blessed to walk away with gold but there’s still a lot of work to be done. It was a challenging year to get used to after what happened at the Olympics so I’m still adjusting and for me to be able to put up that performance, I’m very happy.”
Not so happy, however, was Le Clos who was hoping to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of his stunning Olympic victory in London with a fourth consecutive Commonwealth Games gold in the 200m butterfly.
He missed out by just .29 of a second, beaten to the wall by New Zealand’s Lewis Clareburt.
In claiming silver, Le Clos equalled the all-time record for any athlete at the Commonwealth Games, taking his collection to 18 medals. But that was little consolation.
Silver medal!!!
— Team South Africa (@TeamSA2024) July 31, 2022
What a great ambassador for the country.#TeamSA pic.twitter.com/B3iydCytrZ
“I’ll take the win over everything. I would have cut my finger off to win tonight, that’s the truth. I was so desperate to win – it meant everything to me and my family and friends who flew out from back home for this race. So I’m disappointed I let them down. But I left it out there, I gave it my best shot,” he said afterwards.
“But fair play to Lewis, he broke the national record this morning and again tonight – he had a great race,” he said of the Kiwi, who told 30-year-old Le Clos in the pool afterwards that he had grown up watching him race.
“It is what it is. I’ll take the medal for sure, but I wanted the gold. That’s what I was planning on coming to do.”
Meanwhile, racing in her first major final, Emma Chelius finished just out of the medals in the 50m freestyle. She finished fourth in 24.78 while Erin Gallagher was eighth in the same final in which Australia claimed a clean sweep of the medals.
“It was an incredible experience,” said Chelius. “I loved having Erin in the lane right next to me. And to be with her in the call room, to hear the crowd, to walk out to one of my favourite songs, it all just felt so surreal.
“It’s a season’s best so I’m really happy with that. I think in such a fast field of Aussies, it’s probably the happiest I’ll ever be with fourth place so I’m just so grateful to have had that experience and I’m definitely going to keep learning and building on it every time I race so I can put it into practice for future races.”
Gallagher, meanwhile, set a new national record of 26.17 on her way to second place in her 50m butterfly semifinal and progresses to the final as the second fastest qualifier behind Australia’s multiple Olympic champion Emma McKeon.
“I think I was quite relaxed and that always helps. I was just very excited to race, and I think that’s something that I’ve lost over the years so I’m slowly getting it back,” she said afterwards.
Well done @erin_gallagher12 for making the finals of the 50Fly… we look forward to your finals tomorrow. A good swim from Rebecca Meder, unfortunately was not enough to book a spot in the finals ???????? pic.twitter.com/jnYWE7h11I
— Swimming South Africa (@SwimSouthAfrica) July 31, 2022
Earlier in the evening, gold medallist Pieter Coetzé maintained his unbeaten streak in the backstroke in the Birmingham pool, claiming victory in his 50m backstroke semifinal in 24.81 to qualify fastest for Monday’s final.
“It’s amazing, I’m very happy with that. Last night was a late night – the sessions are quite late in the evening so I’m glad to get it done now so I can go and rest. And today I just wanted to make the final, so job done.”
The Pretoria teen opted to withdraw from the 100m freestyle semifinals on Sunday to focus on his other events.
“I spoke to Rocco [Meiring] and if there wasn’t a realistic chance of a medal we said we’re not going to do it because we’ve still got a long week ahead of us. We’ve still got the 200 left and a bunch of relays,” he explained.