Swimming

Matthew Sates beats Pieter Coetzé in 100m medley contest in Maritzburg

11 August 2022 - 20:52
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Matthew Sates in action during the World Cup in Doha last year.
Matthew Sates in action during the World Cup in Doha last year.
Image: Mohamed Farag/Getty Images

World Cup star Matthew Sates downed Commonwealth Games backstroke king Pieter Coetzé in their 100m individual medley showdown at the SA short-course championships in Pietermaritzburg on Thursday night. 

Slugging it out over four 25-metre lengths, Sates possessed the superior underwater work, to the point that he nullified the backstroke advantage held Coetzé, who won gold, silver and bronze over the three distances at Birmingham 2022. 

Coetzé surfaced far earlier than Sates going into the second backstroke leg, and his speed on that lap was spent playing catch-up. 

By the time they turned into the final freestyle leg, Sates was comfortably ahead and he won in 53.10 sec. Coetzé was second in 53.77. 

Outside the pool the two swimmers are good friends and they even found the time to joke and smile before the race, which was staged near the back-end of the first night of the four-day gala, which also serves as a qualifier for the world short-course championships in Melbourne in December. 

Sates, the male swimmer of the year of the 2021 World Cup series, picked up three wins on the night in his home pool, also taking the 100m freestyle in 48.10 and the 50m butterfly in 23.50. 

All three of his efforts were B-qualifying times, which are used when a nation has no A-qualifiers. But Sates will be looking to go faster come the first World Cup gala in Berlin in October. 

Pretoria-based Coetzé easily won the men’s 200m backstroke in an A-qualifying 1:51.36, a personal best by a few hundredths of a second and the fastest time in the world this year, though the short-course season has yet to get under way.

He was nearly six seconds ahead of his nearest rival, Dylan Wright in 1:57.15. 

Double Games champion Lara van Niekerk easily cruised to victory in the women’s 100m breaststroke, clocking 1 min 04.89 sec, well inside the 1:06.18 A-qualifying mark.  

“I wanted to go a bit faster, but I’m happy. The goal was to qualify,” she said.

However, Van Niekerk pointed out that her participation in Melbourne would depend on how she recovers from surgery next week. 

She will go under the knife to remove a piece of bone that has been causing her pain in the left ankle for six years. 

“I’ll be in a cast for three weeks, so we’ll see how it goes,” said Van Niekerk, who finished second in the 100m IM behind Rebecca Meder, the victor in 1:00.36.

Hannah Pierce won the women’s 200m backstroke in 2:09.47, a B-qualifying time.

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