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SA hero Schoenmaker falls short in 50m breaststroke

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Tatjana Schoenmaker (Getty Images)
Tatjana Schoenmaker (Getty Images)

Cape Town - Tatjana Schoenmaker, the first South African woman to ever win a medal at a long course FINA World Championships, has failed to make the semi-finals of the 50m breaststroke in Gwangju, South Korea.

The 22-year-old, who bagged silver in the 200m breaststroke on Friday afternoon (SA time) finished 6th in her 50m heat on Saturday morning (SA time) in a time of 31.40. 

That was enough to put her 17th fastest overall, narrowly missing out on a place in the semi-finals.

The only good news for South Africa in the session came in the form of Zane Waddell, who qualified 4th fastest in the heats of the 50m backstroke to advance through to the semi-finals. 

Waddell clocked a time of 24.84 to finish 2nd in his heat. 

Elsewhere, the news was less encouraging from a South African perspective.

The mixed team finished 9th in their heat in the 4x100m freestyle relay and 17th overall to miss out on a place in the final, Dune Coetzee finished 24th fastest in a time of 8:47.97 in the 800m freestyle heats and Erin Gallacher was 27th fastest in 50m freestyle heats to miss out on SFs.

South Africa have two medals at the Championships so far thanks to Schoenmaker and Chad le Clos (silver in the 200m butterfly). 

Le Clos will, however, be swimming in the final of the men's 100m at 13:43 (SA time) on Saturday.

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