TOKYO: Tatjana, who won the silver medal in the 100m breaststroke on Tuesday, was in a zone of her own as she attacked the clock with her powerful strokes and got into the lead midway through the swim. The South African, who was a silver medallist in the same event in Gwangju in 2019, had lagged behind the American favourite Lily King who was well within a world record pace before losing ground.
Tatjana grabbed the opening with welcome arms and held on to her momentum through the remaining part of the race and delightfully romped home an easy winner at a stunning time of 2:18.95, which erased the world record of 2:19.11 set by Denmark's Rikke Moller Pederson in 2013. The South African broke out into tears even as King and her team-mate Annie Lazor joined together to congratulate the proud winner. King took silver in 2:19.92 and Lazor captured the bronze at 2:20.84.
Australian Emma McKeon was another great winner of the day, powering herself to the gold medal in the women's 100m freestyle with a new Games record time of 51.96 from a field that included the reigning world record holder Sarah Sjoestroem in the fray. However, the supremacy of the 27-year-old Aussie was never in doubt as she took to the lead right at the start and stroked her way back to the wall brilliantly.
Emma established her stranglehold right from the gun and eventually won with a breathtaking 0.31s lead over Hong Kong's Bernadette Siobhan Haughey, who finished in the same place in the 200m freestyle on Wednesday. Cate Campbell, also from Australia, completed the medal line-up clocking 52.52, while S*
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joestroem finished way behind in the fifth place. Agencies