Dylan Bettencourt
South Africa enjoyed a successful day in the pool on Sunday night with Tatjana Schoenmaker winning gold and Chad le Clos making Commonwealth Games history.
Schoenmaker won the gold medal in the women’s 200m breastroke event with a time of 2:21.92 seconds on Sunday night.
Le Clos won the silver medal in the men’s 200m butterfly on Sunday night to become the joint most decorated athlete in Commonwealth Games history.
Schoenmaker holds the world record in the 200m event and was the favourite to win the gold medal when she lined up in lane four.
The 25-year-old dominated the race from the moment she dived into the pool – holding the lead for the entire race.
Schoenmaker won the gold medal in the same event at the Tokyo Olympics last year.
This time she won South Africa’s third gold medal of the Commonwealth Games.
Making the deal even sweeter, her fellow South African Kaylene Corbett finished in third to claim the bronze medal.
Le Clos needed one medal to become the athlete with the most medals in the history of the games and it could have been with a gold medal.
Lining up in lane five, le Clos was definitely not the favourite to win the race but he touched the wall at the 150m mark in the lead.
The 30-year-old was 50m away from winning South Africa’s third gold medal but New Zealand’s Lewis Clareburt just touched the wall ahead of le Clos.
But le Clos will be delighted with his second place as he wrote his name into the history books.
The South African Olympic gold medalist now has 18 Commonwealth Games medals, more than any other athlete.
Le Clos is now level on the number of medals won with shooters, Brit Michael Gault and Australian Phil Adams.
South Africa now have five medals in total at the games, three gold medals, one silver medal and one bronze medal.
Image source: @SwimSwam
