Schoenmaker shines in a day of mixed results for SA at swimming world championships

While Lara van Niekerk missed out on a place in the 100m breaststroke final at the World Swimming Championships in Fukuoka, Japan on Monday, Olympic gold medallist Tatjana Schoenmaker will contest the final as she posted the third-fastest time of all competitors.

Schoenmaker finished her heats in 1:05.53, but Van Niekerk's time of 1:07.03 was only the 18th fastest and not quick enough to see her progress from the morning session.

Swimming in heat two, Schoenmaker finished second behind Ruta Meilutyte of Lithuania (1:05:09). In the other heat, Lily King of the United States clocked 1:05.45 for the second-fastest time of the evening. 

Schoenmaker will be in the hunt for South Africa's first medal at the championships in Fukuoka on Tuesday and will be among the favourites in the final to be raced at 2:45pm (SA time).

In other results, both Righardt Muller and Milla Drakopoulos were eliminated in the heats on Monday morning. 

Muller clocked the 44th fastest time in the first round of the men's 100m backstroke event, while Drakopoulos was 35th fastest in the same event for women.