Sport

TOKYO 2020

Schoenmaker leads charge in Team SA’s quest for Olympic glory

Schoenmaker leads charge in Team SA’s quest for Olympic glory
TOKYO, JAPAN - JULY 29: Tatjana Schoenmaker of Team South Africa competes in the second Semifinal of the Women's 200m Breaststroke on day six of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Tokyo Aquatics Centre on July 29, 2021 in Tokyo, Japan.(Photo by Fred Lee/Getty Images)

Tatjana Schoenmaker and Kaylene Corbett both won their 200m breaststroke semifinals, heading into Friday’s final as the first and fourth fastest, while the men’s hockey team beat Germany 4-3 in a thriller. Team SA was represented across six different codes on Thursday. Here’s how they fared.

Cycling

Men’s BMX, quarterfinals: Alex Limberg finished sixth in his heat over three runs, his best being his final effort. He scored 18 points and failed to reach the semifinals. There were four heats of six riders. Those ranked first to fourth in each heat qualified for the semis.

Golf 

Men’s first round: Christiaan Bezuidenhout shot an opening-round three-under-par 68 to sit five strokes behind early leader Sepp Straka (63) in the men’s competition. Belgium’s Thomas Pieters and Mexico’s Carlos Ortiz were two back on 65. Garrick Higgo was one under par through 14 holes when lightning forced the suspension of play.

Hockey

Men’s Pool B – South Africa 4 Germany 3: Mustaphaa Cassiem scored the winner in the 48th minute as South Africa came from behind to win. Germany had gone ahead in the eighth minute before Matthew Guise-Brown struck from a penalty corner in the ninth minute and Craig Keenan put South Africa 2-1 up in the 13th minute.

But goals in the 22nd and 24th minutes edged Germany ahead in the game, 3-2. Nic Spooner levelled matters in the 45th minute before Cassiem struck three minutes later.

Sailing

Men’s Skiff, 49ers, races five and six: Benji Daniel and Alex Burger finished 19th in race five, 3:25 behind Denmark’s Jonas Warrer and Jakob Jensen, and 16th in race six, 2:03 behind Brazil’s Marco Grael and Gabriel Borges.

Men’s One-Person Dinghy (Heavyweight), races five and six: Leo Davis finished 19th in races five and six with 3.02 points and 3.17 points, respectively.

Swimming

Women’s breaststroke, semifinal: Kaylene Corbett produced her second-best personal time inside 24 hours by winning her semifinal with a blistering final 50m, touching the wall in 2:22.08. 

Women’s breaststroke, semifinal: Tatjana Schoenmaker won her 200m semi in 2:19.33 to qualify fastest for Friday’s final. She is more than one second quicker than any other finalist. 

Men’s 200m Individual Medley, semifinal: Matthew Sates, who turned 18 on Wednesday, finished eighth in his semifinal in 1:58.75. That left him in 14th spot overall and he was unable to qualify for Friday’s final. 

Chad le Clos was eliminated from the 100m butterfly, finishing a disappointing sixth in his heat at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre in a time of 51:89 on Thursday.

That wasn’t enough to qualify for the semifinal, with only the 16 fastest swimmers from the heats making the cut. Sates, meanwhile, finished fifth in his 100m butterfly heat in 52:34 and was eliminated as well.

Water polo

Men’s Group A – Hungary 23 South Africa 1: South Africa were up against it when they took on gold medal favourites Hungary. South Africa had to wait until the fourth quarter to score their only goal, through Nicholas Rodda. The end-of-quarter scores show Hungary’s total domination. DM

Gallery

Comments - Please in order to comment.

Please peer review 3 community comments before your comment can be posted

X

This article is free to read.

Sign up for free or sign in to continue reading.

Unlike our competitors, we don’t force you to pay to read the news but we do need your email address to make your experience better.


Nearly there! Create a password to finish signing up with us:

Please enter your password or get a sign in link if you’ve forgotten

Open Sesame! Thanks for signing up.

We would like our readers to start paying for Daily Maverick...

…but we are not going to force you to. Over 10 million users come to us each month for the news. We have not put it behind a paywall because the truth should not be a luxury.

Instead we ask our readers who can afford to contribute, even a small amount each month, to do so.

If you appreciate it and want to see us keep going then please consider contributing whatever you can.

Support Daily Maverick→
Payment options

Become a Maverick Insider

This could have been a paywall

On another site this would have been a paywall. Maverick Insider keeps our content free for all.

Become an Insider

Every seed of hope will one day sprout.

South African citizens throughout the country are standing up for our human rights. Stay informed, connected and inspired by our weekly FREE Maverick Citizen newsletter.