SA swim star Schoenmaker storms to breaststroke gold at World Championships

South African swimmer Tatjana Schoenmaker won the women's 200m breaststroke title at the World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka, Japan on Friday.

Schoenmaker, the Olympic champion, touched the wall in 2min, 20.80sec to finish ahead of American Lilly King in 2:21.23 and Tes Schouten of the Netherlands in 2:21.63.

"I really just went into this race just having fun racing," said Schoenmaker.

"We're racing some of the world's best."

Schoenmaker went into the race with the fastest time in the semi-finals.

King was the defending champion.

"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.

????Tatjana SCHOENMAKER with an amazing last 50m takes home gold ?? in the 200m Breaststroke #AQUAFukuoka23 pic.twitter.com/U5oNZ6PYmk

On Thursday, Schoenmaker had reached Friday's final with a dominating 2:21.31 performance in her semi-final heat.

Earlier in the week, Schoenmaker bagged a silver medal in the 100m breaststroke.