Congratulations to Pieter Coetze, who opened the Swimming World Cup in Baku with 1:49.64 in the 200m backstroke and closed it three days later with 49.11 in the 100m.
Two golds, and in that 49.11 the second Pieter Coetze African record of the week, set by a swimmer who had not raced short course in two years.
The 200m backstroke came on the Thursday, and nothing in the morning suggested what was coming. He reached the final as only the joint third fastest qualifier in 1:53.71, more than three seconds behind Blake Tierney’s 1:50.69, in a meet raced short course – a 25m pool, where the extra turns make times quicker than the 50m pool used at the Olympics and the long course World Championships.
At night he was 4.07 quicker and won by 1.10 from the Canadian, with Dmitrii Savenko of Russia third.
“I took a long time off after the Commonwealths, and the last time I raced short course was about two years ago. I’m glad I could start off with a win.” – Pieter Coetze
He was back the same evening for the 100m medley, an event swum only in short course, where all four strokes are fitted into four lengths. Coetze qualified sixth in 53.04, took 1.44 off that in the final and touched in 51.60 for bronze, with Luke Barr winning in 51.57 and Shaine Casas second in 51.58. Three medallists, three hundredths, first to third.
That is the swim on this sheet the rest of the circuit should be looking at. A backstroker who says he barely trains the other three strokes lost a medley gold by three hundredths.
“I haven’t done IM forever, so just wanted to see what I could do. As most people do, I do a little bit of breaststroke here and there in training, and a little bit of Fly and Free, but had no idea what to expect and that’s a very solid time, so I’ll take that.” – Pieter Coetze
The first Pieter Coetze African record came in the 50
The 50m backstroke produced it on the Friday. Coetze topped the heats in 22.90 and took lane four for the final, where he went 0.39 faster in 22.51. An African record is the quickest time ever swum by an African swimmer, and the Pieter Coetze African record over 50m backstroke now reads 22.51.
He shared the silver with Pavel Samusenko, who finished in the same 22.51, and when two swimmers tie both are awarded the medal. It is the second time the two have split that medal, after the long course 50m backstroke at the 2025 World Championships in Singapore. Egor Kornev of Russia won in 22.23 for a World Cup record, the quickest time ever swum at a World Cup meeting.
“I’m happy with it. It’s my best time so I can’t complain. It would have been nice to get the win, but Kornev is obviously a very fast guy.” – Pieter Coetze
Behind at 75m, gold at the wall
Coetze was quickest in the 100m backstroke heats in 50.36 and took 1.25 off that in the final, lowering his own African record of 49.35 from 2024 by 0.24. Samusenko was second in 49.24 and Casas third in 49.89, with Tierney fourth in 50.08.
The margin was 0.13 and it was earned on the last length. Samusenko turned at 50m in 23.45 to Coetze’s 23.49 and was still a hundredth up at 75m. Coetze came home in 12.67 against 12.81, and a one-hundredth deficit became a 0.13 win.
“I got some feedback, I’m going to look at the videos and tweak what I need to tweak, and hopefully I can improve.” – Pieter Coetze
Two African records in three days, and the man’s own verdict on the week is that he has things to tweak.
The three days left him third in the men’s Swimming World Cup standings, the points table that carries across all three stops of the circuit, on 55.6 behind Egor Kornev on 59.3 and Luke Barr on 57.4. Kornev won three golds and a silver at the stop.
The rest of the South African medals
Michael Houlie came the same three hundredths short in the men’s 50m breaststroke, touching in 25.70 behind Qin Haiyang’s 25.67. Kirill Prigoda of Russia was third in 25.88.
Aimee Canny took bronze in the women’s 100m breaststroke in 1:05.16. Mona McSharry of Ireland won that race in 1:04.21, 0.92 clear of Evgeniia Chikunova of Russia, who held Canny off by 0.03.
Nicholas Trower also swam the backstroke events and did not reach a final, 15th in the 200m heats in 2:00.65 and 23rd in the 100m in 56.24.
South Africa finished sixth of the 20 nations on the medal table with two golds, two silvers and two bronzes, four of the six won by Coetze.
Medal Table
🥇 Pieter Coetze, men’s 200m backstroke, 1:49.64
🥇 Pieter Coetze, men’s 100m backstroke, 49.11 (African record)
🥈 Pieter Coetze, men’s 50m backstroke, 22.51 (African record, tied for second)
🥈 Michael Houlie, men’s 50m breaststroke, 25.70
🥉 Pieter Coetze, men’s 100m medley, 51.60
🥉 Aimee Canny, women’s 100m breaststroke, 1:05.16
