Golden girl Tatjana Smith leads trio of SA swimmers into Olympic finals

Tatjana Smith cruised into the final of the women’s 200m breaststroke on Wednesday night, as she prepared to go in search of her second gold medal of the Paris Olympics on Thursday.

There was also success on day five of the Games for Smith’s compatriots, Kaylene Corbett and Pieter Coetze, who progressed to medal contests in the pool.

Smith, who won gold in the 100m breaststroke on Monday, was second fastest overall in the penultimate round of the 200m event in her specialist stroke on Wednesday evening.

She touched the wall in 2:19.94, just 0.20 behind American opponent Kate Douglass (2:19.74). Both swimmers were well clear of the rest of the field, with nobody else going under 2:22.00.

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A little further back, former Olympic finalist Kaylene Corbett also made it through to the final (to be held at 9.11pm on Thursday) by clocking the fourth quickest semifinal time (2:22.87).

Coetze, fresh off his fifth-place finish in the 100m backstroke earlier this week, was third quickest in the men’s 200m backstroke semis, and he too will turn out with an eye on the podium on Thursday night (8.38pm).

Other results

Earlier on Wednesday, the SA men’s rowing pair of John Smith and Christopher Baxter finished fourth in their semifinal in 6:40.35, missing out on a spot in the A final by a little over four seconds.

While they were out of medal contention, they booked their place in the B final to be held on Friday.

In the women’s single sculls event, Paige Badenhorst won her C/D semifinal race in 7:55.91, progressing to the C final taking place on Saturday.

Elsewhere on day five, former Olympic medallist Henri Schoeman finished 20th in the men’s triathlon in 1:40:48, after the race was postponed by a day due to poor water quality in the Seine river. His compatriot, Jamie Riddle, ended 25th in 1:42:08.

In the women’s triathlon race, Vicky van der Merwe was 46th in 1:59.94.

The SA women’s hockey team were handed their third straight defeat of the group stages, after being edged 2-1 against Great Britain, and the national men’s side also remained without a win after four games in the Olympic tournament, falling in a 3-0 defeat to Spain.

Looking ahead

Sarah Baum, the last South African remaining in the surfing competition, is hoping to turn out in the third round in the early hours of Thursday morning (1.48am), following postponements over the last couple of days due to hazardous weather conditions in Tahiti.

Wian Roux will compete in the 1/32 elimination round of men’s archery on Thursday after his match on Wednesday was postponed.