Tatjana on track for Olympic gold, Pieter hunting backstroke medal

Tatjana Smith took pole position for the Olympic 100m breaststroke final on Monday night after posting the fastest time of the semifinals at the incredible La Defense Arena in Paris on Sunday night. 

She insisted she was feeling no nerves and then, almost to prove her statement, she stayed in the mixed zone with South African journalists to watch her Tuks teammate Pieter Coetzé in the 100m backstroke semifinals on a TV set in the arena.

She cheered him on heartily as he clocked a 52.63sec African record to qualify joint third-fastest overall. 

Two pool medals on one day would be a first for South Africa at the Olympics. Also in contention for Team South Africa on Monday is mountain-biker Alan Hatherly in the men’s cross-country race in the afternoon.

Smith touched the wall in 1min 05.00sec — the exact same time she had managed in the morning heats — the second-fastest time of her career, slower only than the 1:04.82 Olympic record she swam at Tokyo 2020.

“I’m grateful to be swimming much faster times. I think most of all it is not even about the time anymore for me, it's enjoying the experience and I’m having so much more fun and having a crowd,” said Smith, who competed in Japan without fans because of the Covid-19 pandemic restrictions.

The French fans transformed the stadium into ear-splitting ecstasy as Leon Marchand won the 400m individual medley crown earlier. 

“ You would think it makes you more nervous but it's nice to know my family as I walk out, I know exactly where they're sitting and it’s for them I’m swimming. It’s for the people of South Africa.”

Second-fastest was Ireland’s Mona McSharry, who finished second behind Smith in a 1:05.51 best followed by world record-holder Lilly King of the US in 1:05.64.

China’s Qianting Tang won the other semifinal in 1:05.83, well off her 1:04.39 world lead from April.

In Tokyo Smith went into the final seeded first, but ended second.

“We all know how the final feels, you never know what to expect,” she said, but insisted she wouldn’t do anything differently.

She admitted that in Tokyo she was younger and wanting to prove herself.

“This time I'm enjoying and I really want to take [it all in]. I know this is my last Olympics. Having fun every single race.

“Everything I do is to not stand behind the blocks and be worried. I know I've prepared as best as I could and now it’s the fun part. It’s weird to say that but it is like it’s just enjoy and embrace the burn and if you burn, it's just I love competing.

The pressures that had come when she was Schoenmaker before getting married last year had gone.

“I don’t have the pressures of Schoenmaker on me. I’m new and I’m a different person. So let’s go.”

Coetzé, 20, was all smiles after his semifinal.

“I wasn't thinking about time at all going into this. I just wanted to make the final.

“At the Olympics you just want a spot in the final because you can’t win a medal if you’re not in the final.”

Coetzé said he had learned his lesson after missing out on the 100m backstroke podium at the world championships in Doha in February, where he swam into the lane rope.

“I [went] out thinking this is my chance, I’m going to be a world champion and forcing it way too much, and trying to power my way through.

“So I definitely learned to just let it happen.”