South African swimmer Tatjana Schoemaker has broken the Olympic Games record in breaststroke today in Japan.

Schoemaker broke the Olympic record after winning her 200m breaststroke heat in 2:19.15.

“Tatjana Schoenmaker won her heat in 2:19.15, a new Olympic record in the women’s breaststroke. She is only 0.05sec off the world record. Kaylene Corbett won her heat in 2:22.48 to qualify 4th fastest to reach the semi-finals,” @ Team SA2020 tweeted.

On Tuesday, Schoenmaker and Bianca Buitendag earned South Africa first medals at the ongoing Olympics.

Schoemaker had claimed silver in the women’s 100m breastrioke whereas Buitendag bagged also silver in surfing.

Schoenmaker finished behind 17-year-old American Lydia Jacoby in the women’s 100m breaststroke final.

She is in her debut Olympics.

On the other hand, Chad le Clos finished fifth in the men’s 200m butterfly final whereas Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio settled for eighth place in the women’s cycling time trial.

Another South Africa Stefan De Bod was 12th in the men’s equivalent of the cycling section.

South Africa is carrying Africa’s hopes for medals at the Games as, out of all the teams from the continent, it has the biggest squad (167).