2020 TOKYO SUMMER OLYMPIC GAMES
- When: Pool swimming: Saturday, July 24 – Sunday, August 1, 2021
- Open Water swimming: Wednesday, August 4 – Thursday, August 5, 2021
- Where: Olympic Aquatics Centre / Tokyo, Japan
- Heats: 7 PM / Semifinals & Finals: 10:30 AM (Local time)
- Full aquatics schedule
- SwimSwam Event Previews
- Entry Lists
- Live Results
Day 5 Finals Recap
South Africa made some noise for the continent of Africa on day five, with two representatives qualifying into an Olympic final together and an African continental relay record down.
During the women’s 200 breast semifinals, South African Kaylene Corbett won the first heat with another personal best of 2:22.08, solidifying her spot into the Olympic final. In the second heat, newly-minted Olympic record-holder Tatjana Schoenmaker, Corbett’s Tuks training-mate in Pretoria, RSA, swam another 2:19 performance to stay on top of the rankings.
During the preliminaries, Schoenmaker hit an Olympic record of 2:19.16, the second-fastest performance in history, which is off the 2:19.11 world record from 2013.
As Corbett enters the final as a medal contender, Schoenmaker enters both as an Olympic title threat and a World record threat. The last time a South African woman won a swimming Olympic title was in Atlanta 1996, where Penny Heyns won the 200 breast final with a time of 2:25.41, holding off 14-year-old American Amanda Beard.
Also contesting in an Olympic semifinal for South Africa on day five was Matthew Sates. The 18-year-old placed 14th in the men’s 200 IM semifinals at 1:58.75. Earlier in the preliminary heats, Sates swam 1:58.08 to qualify 15th in the second round.
Briefly rewinding to the evening preliminaries for day five’s events, the South African women’s 800 free relay of Aimee Canny (1:58.41), Rebecca Meder (2:00.53), Dune Coetzee (1:59.75), Erin Gallagher (2:02.87) swam to a new African continental record of 8:01.56, which placed 11th overall. The former national record was set in February 2021 at 8:04.71, which had zero sub-2:00 splits.
CONTINENTAL & NATIONAL RECORDS ON DAY 5
- Women’s 800 Free Relay: Africa/South Africa — Canny/Meder/Coetzee/Gallagher, 8:01.56
- Women’s 100 Free: Nigeria — Abiola Ogunbanwo, 59.35
AFRICAN MEDAL TABLE THROUGH DAY 4
| NATION | TOTAL MEDALS | GOLD | SILVER | BRONZE |
| Tunisia | 1 | 1 | ||
| South Africa | 1 | 1 |