Pretoria teammates Pieter Coetzé and Kaylene Corbett both safely negotiated semi[final swims at the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore on Thursday.
Coetzé will be looking to add to his 100m backstroke gold when he lines up for the final of the 200m event. Having scraped through to the semi-finals earlier in the day as the 16th fastest qualifier in 1:57.11, the 21-year-old put any doubts to rest in his evening swim. He stormed to victory in the first semi-final, taking out the first 50m under world record pace and holding on to finish in 1:54.22 – so bettering his own African record.
It’s also a time that would have won him the gold medal at last year’s Olympic Games in Paris and sees him through to Friday’s final as one of the favourites.
“I definitely paced myself wrong this morning and took a big risk – barely made it in, 16th place,” said a relieved Coetzé afterwards. “I think that gave me a lot of motivation and I felt very honoured and blessed to actually make it through to even be here tonight. So I think that put me in a very good state of mind to go out there and put together a very good race tonight.”
Commenting on taking the race out at such a blisteringly fast pace, he laughed: “[You need] to be on the world record on the last 50, not the first 50.”
Corbett, meanwhile, continued her impressive run of reaching major international finals – having done so in the 200m breaststroke at both the 2024 and 2021 Olympic Games alongside Tatjana Smith, as well as the 2019 World Championships.
The 26-year-old booked her place in the semifinals by finishing third in her heat in 2:25.10 and then went quicker in the evening. She finished fourth in her semifinal in 2:23.81 and qualified seventh fastest into the final, where she’ll be up against Russia’s world record-holder Evgeniia Chikunova and Olympic champion Kate Douglass of the USA.
Earlier in the day, Rebecca Meder also competed in the heats of the 200m breaststroke – on her 23rd birthday – but a stomach bug that has affected several swimmers at these championships meant she was well off her best, finishing 24th overall in 2:28.40. The New Zealand-based star’s best time of 2:23.61, swum on her way to clinching the national title in April this year, would have seen her safely into Friday’s final.
The other South African in action on Thursday was Erin Gallagher, who finished 27th overall in the 100m freestyle heats with a time of 55.01 seconds. The SA quartet of Aimee Canny, Georgia Nel, Hannah Robertson and Catherine van Rensburg finished 10th overall in the 4x200m freestyle relay in 8:13.06, so missing out on the final.
Friday will see a return to the pool for Gallagher, who will line up for the 50m butterfly heats, while Van Rensburg will take on the 800m freestyle before Coetzé and Corbett will take to the blocks for their respective finals.
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