Tatjana Smith lays down 50m breaststroke marker
Tatjana Smith, as the recently married Schoenmaker wants to be known, showed an impressive burst of speed as she won the 50m breaststroke at the national championships in Gqeberha yesterday.
The Olympic 200m breaststroke champion clocked 30.09sec in the morning heats and then repeated the identical time as she beat African recordholder Lara van Niekerk, who touched second in 30.16.
The 50m breaststroke is not part of the Olympic programme — one of three sprint races along with backstroke and butterfly that don’t enjoy Games status — but it offers a glimpse of what to expect for the rest of the gala.
“I know it’s not really the same, but most of the time if I feel a bit like on the water for the 50 it means my 100 could possibly be a good one as well.
“I just don’t want to focus too much on it and have big expectations, but it’s exciting to finally come closer to that 30 [second limit]. I hope one day to drop under 30,” Smith said, adding she was surprised by her turn of speed.
“In training my speed was the thing that was lacking the most. I think that’s just how the training is.
“I train for the 200 so the speed is just an add-on ... it’s nice to see that it actually is faster, so hopefully the rest of the gala looks good.”
Smith said she was keen to use her new surname to make a statement about her identity.
“[It’s] saying swimming is what I do, it’s not who I am, and that’s why I changed my surname, because I didn’t want my identity to lie in swimming and I think people only know me as Tatjana Schoenmaker.
“I really felt like that’s not who I am. That’s just a surname and I’ve grown into a different person.
“I’m not the person I was in 2021, and I just want to embrace it.”
Van Niekerk, owner of the 29.72 African record, will have to find extra speed if she wants to qualify comfortably in the 100m breaststroke on Friday.
Achieving qualifying times while finishing in the top two at the national championships this week is the only way to guarantee selection for the Paris showpiece later this year.
Erin Gallagher took sevenhundredths of a second off her own SA record as she won the 50m butterfly in 25.59sec and she did not want to get too optimistic about her upcoming performances, especially in the 100m butterfly.
“It’s obviously nice to think because you did a PB in one event, all your other events are going to be good, but it’ sa completely different race, completely different strategy.
“The 50 is about going as fast as possible whereas the 100 is more of a controlled speed event, so you never really know what to expect, but I’m looking forward to the rest of the meet.”
Pieter Coetzé won the men’s 50m backstroke in 25.54.
“I’m not over the moon with the time, it would have been very nice to go faster than that, but it’s a 50 so I’m not too worried about it,” he said.
“I felt very good in the race, I can’t really put my finger on anything that felt bad.”
US-based Michael Houlie won the men’s 50m breaststroke in 27.15, well off his 26.82 best, but he has time to recalibrate before the 100m.
There were no Olympic qualifying times in the two eligible events yesterday — India’s Kushagra Rawat won the men’s 1,500m freestyle in 15min 41.61sec and Duné Coetzee the women’s 800m freestyle in 8:40.13.
Jarden Eaton won the men’s 50m butterfly in 24.18 and Tayla Jonker was first in the women’s 50m backstroke in 28.75.
The bid for Olympic qualifications will begin in earnest today.