Cape Town - New world championship silver medalist Tatjana Schoenmaker will be flying the South African flag at the opening leg of the FINA Swimming World Cup taking place in Tokyo, Japan from August 2-4.

Schoenmaker will be making her debut at the annual series a week after she became South Africa's first female medalist at the FINA World Championships in Gwangju, South Korea and will share the stage with swimming legend and three-time world champion Roland Schoeman.

Schoenmaker won the 200m breaststroke silver medal, adding to the country's four medals at the global showpiece, when she finished second behind defending world champion Yuliya Efimova of Russia, clocking 2:22.52 to Efimova's gold-medal winning 2:20.17.

South Africa has a proud history at the Swimming World Cup boasting multiple series winners, including Chad le Clos, Cameron van der Burgh and Ryk Neethling, with Le Clos becoming the first man to win four titles in 2011, 2013, 2014 and 2017.

The 2019 FINA Swimming World Cup will be held in a 50m pool and the seven legs of this series will also double as qualifying events for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Some of the world's top swimmers are expected to feature at the event just days after the end of the World Championships.

More South African swimmers are expected to compete in the series that will culminate in the final meeting in Doha in November.

The series will comprise of three legs starting with the Tokyo, Jinan and Singapore legs before a break in September. The second cluster will be held in Budapest and Berlin while the final cluster will see Kazan and Doha host galas in November.

The FINA Swimming World Cup offers a total of over $2.5 million in prize money to the best athletes. The overall series winners will bag a whopping $600 000.