{"id":7670,"date":"2022-08-01T08:11:03","date_gmt":"2022-08-01T06:11:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/?p=7670"},"modified":"2022-08-01T08:26:57","modified_gmt":"2022-08-01T06:26:57","slug":"three-more-medals-for-team-sa-in-birmingham-pool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/?p=7670","title":{"rendered":"Three more medals for Team SA in Birmingham pool"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n\n

Sunday, 31 July 2022 \u2013 South African swimmers added a full complement of medals to Team South Africa\u2019s collection at the Commonwealth in Birmingham on\u00a0Sunday night.<\/p>\n\n

Olympic champion and world record holder Tatjana Schoenmaker made sure the gold was never in doubt in the 200m breaststroke, the defending champion leading from start to finish to win in a time of 2:21.92.<\/p>\n\n

Claiming the bronze medal in the same race was Schoenmaker\u2019s Tuks teammate and friend Kaylene Corbett, who produced a great final 50m to finish in a time of 2:23.67, with Australia\u2019s Jenna Strauch taking the silver in 2:23.65.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s obviously amazing,\u201d said a thrilled Schoenmaker afterwards. \u201cFour years ago Kaylene was standing in the crowd and she\u2019s always crying for me so for me it was the happiest moment. I really didn\u2019t care what my result was \u2013 I was so happy for her to win her first international medal and then the blessing is to share that podium. We\u2019re so proud to wear the green and gold but being able to sing that anthem together, we just felt united with our country in that moment,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n\n

An equally emotional Corbett said: \u201cWe\u2019ve fought for women\u2019s sport since 2016 when none of the South African girls made the Olympic team but we\u2019ll keep fighting until we\u2019re done swimming so this is definitely a step in the right direction having two girls on the podium in comparison to 2018 when she was on the podium and I was crying in the stands so I must say, it\u2019s nice to cry on the podium than next to the pool.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n\n

Also making a trip to the podium was Chad le Clos, who was looking to make it four consecutive golds in the 200m butterfly at the Commonwealth Games but was just out-touched by New Zealand\u2019s Lewis Clareburt \u2013 Le Clos taking silver in 1:55.89 and Clareburt the gold in 1:55.60.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m gutted not to have won, I\u2019ll be honest with you,\u201d said Le Clos, who won his Olympic gold in the same event exactly 10 years ago to the day. \u201cI was stinging in the last 50m. But fair play to Lewis, he broke the national record this morning and again tonight \u2013 he had a great race. It is what it is.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ll take the medal for sure, but I wanted the gold. That\u2019s what I was planning on coming to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND – JULY 31: Chad le Clos of South Africa in action during the Men\u0092s 200m Butterfly Finals during Swimming event on day 3 of the 2022 Commonwealth Games at Sandwell Aquatics Centre on July 31, 2022 in Birmingham, England. (Photo by Anton Geyser\/Gallo Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

In winning the silver Le Clos nevertheless equalled the record for the most medals won by any athlete in Commonwealth Games history \u2013 taking his overall haul to 18.<\/p>\n\n

In the other finals of the evening, Emma Chelius finished just out of the medals in fourth (24.78) and Erin Gallagher eighth (25.39) in the 50m freestyle.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cIt was an incredible experience, I loved having Erin in the lane right next to me\u2026 It\u2019s a season\u2019s best so I\u2019m really happy with that. I\u2019m just so grateful to have had that experience and I\u2019m definitely going to keep learning and building on it every time I race so I can put it into practice for future races,\u201d said Chelius.<\/p>\n\n

Rebecca Meder celebrated her 20th<\/sup> birthday with a seventh-place finish in the 100m backstroke in 1:02.06.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cI think I was ranked 15th<\/sup> so to finish seventh is amazing\u2026 it\u2019s been a great night of racing for South Africa as a whole,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cThat was my first big senior international final, so I enjoyed every moment and soaked it all up and I\u2019m so excited for tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Brenden Crawford finished eighth in the men\u2019s 100m breaststroke final in 1:01.98, while Christian Sadie finished fifth in the SB8 100m breaststroke in 1:22.14.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cIt was good. It\u2019s not the race I\u2019m focusing on \u2013 tomorrow\u2019s the big one but it was really nice being here racing, the crowd was amazing and it\u2019s been a privilege to be able to go out twice which not many of the Para athletes get to do so I\u2019m really honoured to be here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Having already collected gold in the 100m backstroke on Saturday, teenager Pieter Coetz\u00e9 continued his winning form in the semifinal of the 50m backstroke. He won in 24.81 to go through to Monday\u2019s final as the fastest qualifier.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s amazing, I\u2019m very happy with that. Last night was a late night \u2013 the sessions are quite late in the evening so I\u2019m glad to get it done now so I can go and rest. And today I just wanted to make the final, so job done.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Also making her way safely through the semifinals was Gallagher who powered to a national record time of 26.17 in the 50m butterfly to finish second in her semi to qualify second fastest for Monday\u2019s final.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cI think I was quite relaxed and that always helps. I was just very excited to race and I think that\u2019s something that I\u2019ve lost over the years so I\u2019m slowly getting it back,\u201d said Gallagher afterwards. \u201cI think my goal for tomorrow is just to have fun and if I break 26 seconds, that would be a cherry on top but I\u2019m so excited to be racing again and we\u2019ll see what happens in the final.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Gallagher was back in the pool for the 4x200m freestyle relay final with Team SA teammates Aimee Canny, Dune Coetzee and Michaela Pulford, who finished in fourth place in 8:02.25. The race was won in world record time by Australia in a sensationally quick 7:39.29.<\/p>\n\n

ENDS<\/strong><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 Sunday, 31 July 2022 \u2013 South African swimmers added a full complement of medals to Team South Africa\u2019s collection at the Commonwealth in Birmingham…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":342,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7670"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7670"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7670\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7696,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7670\/revisions\/7696"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}