Pieter Coetzé breaks another African record at world championships

Pieter Coetzé delivered SA’s highlight at the world short-course championships in Melbourne on Wednesday, lowering his own African record while powering to fourth place in the 100m backstroke. 

The Pretoria-based grade 11 pupil clocked 49.60 sec to knock 0.25 sec off the continental mark he had posted in Tuesday’s semifinals. 

There were no gongs to add to Matthew Sates’s 200m individual medley gold from Tuesday, with veteran Chad le Clos finishing fifth in the 50m butterfly, the only other final featuring an SA swimmer on the second day of the gala. 

Lara van Niekerk will have a podium charge in the women’s 100m breaststroke final on Thursday after a strong swim in the morning heats where she edged American veteran Lilly King by one-hundredth of a second to win in 1 min 03.93 sec. 

That was the second-fastest time of the morning, behind Lithuanian favourite Ruta Meilutyte’s 1:03.81.

But the Commonwealth Games champion, who underwent surgery on her ankle in August and wrote her matric finals last month, slowed in the evening semifinals.

Van Niekerk tied for second in her race alongside China’s defending champion Qianting Tang in 1:04.36, behind Reona Aoki of Japan in 1:04.13.

The next semifinal was considerably faster, with King stunning Meilutyte by seven-hundredths to take the victory in 1:03.33. 

“I think this morning I was a bit more relaxed, my stroke, I think I rushed a bit tonight,” said Van Niekerk, SA’s only medallist at the world long-course championships in Budapest in June. “Tomorrow I will just try to have that long, relaxed stroke again. 

“It’s going to take a 1:03 to medal,” added the 19-year-old, who is not far off Tatjana Schoenmaker’s 1:03.89 African record from 2020.

Le Clos, 30, clocked a decent 22.11 in a race won by 42-year-old Brazilian Nicholas Santos, the defending champion who bagged his fourth gold in this event in a 21.78 championship record. Even the South African’s 22.09 from the semifinals wouldn’t have made the top three. 

Noe Ponti of Switzerland was second in 21.96 and Hungarian Szebasztian Szabo third in 21.98.

But for SA the night belonged to Coetzé, the Commonwealth Games champion who ended behind multiple Olympic medallist Ryan Murphy of the US in a 48.50 championship record. 

The 12.59 Coetzé registered over the final 25 metres was the second-fastest last lap of the field, behind only Italy’s Lorenzo Mora, the defending champion who touched second in 49.04. Australian Isaac Cooper was third in 49.52. 

Coetzé’s 11.45 into the first turn also made him the second-fastest of the opening lap, after Murphy. 

Apart from Van Niekerk, SA’s other medal hopes on Thursday are Le Clos in the 200m butterfly and Sates in the 400m freestyle. 

Coetzé returns to action in the 50m backstroke heats on Thursday, with the final of that event set for Friday night.