When looking at the video wall in the Tokyo Aquatics Center, Tatjana Schoenmaker burst into tears: With a fabulous race over 200 meters in world record time, the South African breaststroke swimmer shaped the Olympic finals on Friday. The 24-year-old took gold in 2: 18.95 minutes and undercut the previous record set by Dane Rikke Møller Pedersen in 2013 by 16 hundredths of a second. A few hours before double world champion Florian Wellbrock's third appearance in Tokyo in the 1500 meter freestyle run, the top international swimmers delivered exciting races and fast times.
In the first session with finals and semifinals in the Tokyo Aquatics Center without German participation, Schoenmaker won ahead of the two Americans Lilly King and Annie Lazor.
Over half the distance, Schoenmaker had won silver in Japan.
At the award ceremony, she cried again, her teammates in the stands sang along with the national anthem.
First individual world record
On the seventh day of the competition, Schoenmaker set the first individual world record at these summer games.
Previously there had been records on two relay routes.
Schoenmaker wasn't the only one to set a record on Friday.
In the 100 meter freestyle, Australian Emma McKeon was crowned Olympic champion in an Olympic best time of 51.96 seconds.
Bronze went to Haughey Siobhan from Hong Kong, while Australian Cate Campbell came in third.
In his triumph over 200 meters in 1: 53.27 minutes, the Russian back swimmer Yevgeny Rylow was also faster than anyone before on this route at the Olympics.
The Chinese Wang Shun won over 200 meters, ahead of Duncan Scott from Great Britain and the Swiss Jeremy Desplanches.
Philip Heintz from Heidelberg had left the day before.
In the 100 meter semifinals, the two butterfly stars Kristof Milak from Hungary and the American Caeleb Dressel flexed their muscles.
First, Milak set an Olympic record in 50.31 seconds, just a few minutes later Dressel was 60 hundredths of a second faster and smiled with satisfaction.
In the second session of the day, the eyes of German swimming fans will mainly focus on Wellbrock. After his fourth place in the 800 meter freestyle, the 23-year-old definitely wants a medal on one of his two gold courses at the 2019 World Cup in South Korea. Initially, the advance is scheduled at 1:23 p.m. (CEST). The goal is the final on Sunday. Wellbrock is to be rated even more strongly on the longest of all Olympic pool distances than over 800 meters.