GARY LEMKE in Paris
Tatjana Smith showed that she has ice running through her veins when she surged to the gold medal in the women’s 100m breaststroke at the 2024 Paris Olympics on Monday night.
It’s one thing going into a final as the favourite, no matter how much you try to play down that tag. And favourite she was, after blitzing to wins in both the Sunday heats and semi-finals in identical times of 1:05.00. However, it’s another thing delivering on that.
Especially when you turn at the wall in fourth place and out of the medals at halfway. That was exactly the scenario as China’s Quinting Tang led Ireland’s Mona McSharry and Italy’s Benedetto Pilato down the home stretch.
Turning on the turbos, Schoenmaker picked off her rivals one by one. First Pilato. Into bronze. Then McSharry. Into silver. And then to touch off Tang. Gold.
The time was 1:05.28, which was slower than her identical marks of 1:05.00 in both the heats and semi-finals on Monday. That’s not important right now. The gold medal is what counts and it took Team SA’s total to three, after Alan Hatherly won bronze earlier in the men’s mountain biking cross-country.
Smith’s own Olympics tally has now grown to three, with two golds and a silver, and one more will see her equal Chad le Clos on four, the most of any South African Olympian. The chances of her adding to that total later in the week are high, given she’s the reigning champion in the 200m.
Smith had shown that she was in superb shape heading into the final, after swimming identical times of 1:05.00 in both Sunday’s morning heats and the evening semi-final. That was only 0.18sec behind her Games record from Tokyo and a full half second quicker that her rivals. At this level half a second is a substantial advantage over 100m.
Perhaps surprising is that she touched at the turn in 30.62, compared to the 30.63 and 30.57 in Sunday’s races. That means she came back over the last 50m slower than she had in both races leading into the final, but she still nabbed the three swimmers who were ahead of her with 50m to go.
Only minutes earlier had Pieter Coetze walked to the blocks as a realistic medal contender in the men’s 100m backstroke. To give an indication of how competitive the event was, and the depth of the stroke in the sport, all eight finalists came from different countries.
Coetze reacted slowest to the gun and had it all to do from there. He worked his way to the wall in fifth spot and that’s where he stayed as Italy’s Thomas Ceccon finished strongly to claim gold.
One needs to remember that Coetze is still only 20 and already competing in his second Olympics. He barged his way into the final having set the joint third fastest time in the semi-finals and stood an obvious chance of winning a medal if he could replicate that performance. Not only did he replicate it, but he bettered it by 0.05sec, lowering the African record to 52.58. His time is coming.
Photo: ANTON GEYSER/Team SA.
SOURCED FROM THE TEAM SA WEBSITE.
