FUKUOKA: South Africa’s Tatjana Schoenmaker won the women’s 200m breaststroke title at swimming’s world championships on Friday.
Schoenmaker, the Olympic champion, touched the wall in 2min, 20.80sec to finish ahead of American Kate Douglass in 2:21.23 and Tes Schouten of the Netherlands in 2:21.63.
Lilly King of the United States, the defending champion, finished fourth.
“I really just went into this race just having fun racing,” said Schoenmaker, who won silver in the 100m breaststroke earlier in the week.
“We’re racing some of the world’s best.”
Schoenmaker went into the race with the fastest time in the semi-finals.
“Coming back from the Olympics was a tough two years so I’m just grateful that I was able to have the opportunity to be able to race some of these girls here,” said Schoenmaker.
Evgeniia Chikunova set a new world record of 2:17.55 at the Russian national championships in April but she was banned from competing in Fukuoka over her country’s involvement in the war in Ukraine.