On Sunday night, the world record holder and Olympic champion in the event defended her title from 2018 in Gold Coast, Australia, by touching the wall in a time of 2 min 21.92 sec.

Fellow South African, Kaylene Corbett, claimed the bronze medal with the swimmer touching the wall in a time of 2 min 23.67 sec.

Schoenmaker said it was special to share the podium with her good friend.

“I really didn’t care what my result was – I was so happy for her to win her first international medal and then the blessing was to share that podium,” she added after the teary medal ceremony.

“Obviously it wasn’t my best time, and I was actually really tired in that race. So, I wouldn’t say it was the best race, but I just went out there and gave it my best and God did the rest.

“I’m so blessed to walk away with gold but there’s still a lot of work to be done. It was a challenging year to get used to after what happened at the Olympics so I’m still adjusting and for me to be able to put up that performance, I’m very happy.”

The Hartswater-born Corbett in turn said that she knew after the race that she gave everything to earn her well-deserved spot on the podium.

“I gave everything, and I stood having an interview after the race and I could feel my knees buckling so I knew that was the best performance I could get out of myself.”

Meanwhile, in the men’s 200m butterfly, Chad le Clos took silver to equal the Commonwealth Games record for the most medals, namely 18, by an individual athlete.

Morgan Piek/OFM Sport