Pieter Coetzé torpedoed the world’s best backstrokers as he raced to gold in the 100m event at the world championships in Singapore on Tuesday, claiming SA’s first medal of the gala.
The race featured the Olympic 100m and 200m backstroke champions and while it was neck-and-neck for 75m, when Coetzé put the hammer down his rivals were unable to respond.
The 21-year-old touched in 51.85sec — equalling the world’s third-fastest time achieved in this event — with Italian Thomas Ceccon, the owner of the 51.60 world record and gold medallist from the 2024 Paris Games, second in 51.90 and Frenchman Yohann Ndoye-Brouard third in 51.92.
Hungarian Hubert Kós, the Olympic 200m backstroke champion, was fourth in 52.20.
Just more than a week ago, Coetzé became the first swimmer in two years to dip under 52sec in the 100m backstroke when he won the World Student Games gold in 51.99.
And on Tuesday he went even quicker, dragging two more men with him below the mark.
Coetzé’s potential has been obvious since he made the senior national team for the Tokyo Olympics as a 16-year-old.
He was always strong on top of the water, but his underwater work and turns needed work.
When he came off the wall almost simultaneously with the front-runners it was obvious Coetzé was going to make the podium.
“I always thought it would happen eventually, it was just a matter of [when], but it feels amazing. I can’t say it was expected, it was a gamble doing World University Games before this but so far it’s working pretty well,” said Coetzé, who swims again in the 200m backstroke heats on Thursday morning.
Earlier in the evening, Chris Smith delivered another personal best as he finished second in his 50m breaststroke in 26.77, advancing to Wednesday’s final seeded joint fifth overall.
Smith got off to a slow start, but his powerful work on top of the water saw him making huge inroads into the field to touch
six-hundredths of a second behind Dutchman Koen de Groot.
China’s Haiyang Qin, the 100m breaststroke champion, won the second semifinal in 26.52.
But it was a great day for Smith, becoming the second-fastest South African in this event after former world record-holder and two-time world champion Cameron van der Burgh (26.54).
Aimee Canny ended sixth in her 200m freestyle semifinal in 1min 57.72sec, slightly slower than her time in the heats and missing out on a spot in Wednesday’s final.
At the same time, Katie Ledecky delivered another masterclass in distance swimming to collect her sixth world title in the 1,500m freestyle and while she was never threatened in the final she felt her rivals were helping her push the sport forward.
The American great has now won 22 world titles and her gold on Tuesday took her overall medal tally to 28, second only to compatriot Michael Phelps’ 33.
Ledecky, who has won nine Olympic gold medals, was well under her own world record pace for much of the race at the Singapore Sports Hub but eased off in the last 200m to touch the wall in 15min 26.44sec.
That was more than 5sec clear of silver medallist Italian Simona Quadarella, whose time of 15:31.79 made her the second quickest swimmer in the event — though it is still slower than 11 of Ledecky’s times.
“I just wanted to try to get out fast, but comfortable enough that I can build from there. Happy with the time, happy with the swim,” Ledecky said.
Additional reporting Reuters
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