By Retta Race on SwimSwam
2025 World Championships
July 27 – August 3, 2025 (pool swimming)
Singapore, Singapore
World Aquatics Championships Area
LCM (50m)
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South Africa’s Pieter Coetze entered totally new territory when he ripped a lifetime greatest, South African nationwide and African continental document of 51.99 within the males’s 100m backstroke at this month’s World College Video games.
Getting into the competitors, which befell in Germany, Coetze’s lifetime greatest checked in on the 52.58 he logged eventually yr’s Olympic Video games. He lowered that to 52.18 within the semi-finals earlier than unleashing the #1 time on the earth this season.
Now 21-year-old Coetze leads a 14-strong South African roster heading to Singapore for the World Championships, whose swimming motion kicks off tomorrow, Sunday, July twenty seventh.
Chatting with the South African Swimming Federation forward of Singapore, Coetze stated of his new PB, “I used to be very pleased with how Berlin went and with my performances there.
“It wasn’t actually anticipated in any respect. I didn’t actually know what to anticipate to be truthful, however to swim a 51 within the 100 backstroke was positively surprising and positively boosted my confidence.”
Our males’s 100m backstroke World Championships preview was revealed previous to the World College Video games so Coetze’s 51.99 wasn’t factored into the prediction.
The South African could have his palms full, with the likes of Kliment Kolesnikov of Russia (representing impartial athletes), present world document holder Thomas Ceccon of Italy and British rising star Oliver Morgan.
Coetze additionally notched a time of 48.12 within the 100m freestyle for silver at WUGs, hitting a brand new PB in that occasion as effectively within the particular person race.
However he took even that occasion a step additional, unleashing an enormous career-swiftest efficiency of 47.88 as lead-off on his nation’s males’s 4x100m free relay.
That rendered the TUKS scholar the 2nd-best South African 100m freestyler in historical past, sitting solely behind Lyndon Fearns and his longstanding nationwide document of 47.79 posted in 2009.
Of that 1free outing, Coetze acknowledged, “It’s additionally good to see the freestyle coming alongside. To go sub-48 was fairly cool and an enormous PB as effectively. So it was all an excellent signal for Singapore. It’s fairly shut after Berlin, however I believe issues are trying good.
“There have been some very quick occasions from throughout and the sphere may be very bunched up, however I believe that’s simply going to deliver the most effective out of all of us, and we’ll push one another so I’m fairly excited to race all these guys who’ve put up quick occasions this yr,” he stated.
Fellow nationwide document holder Erin Gallagher can also be pumped for what might transpire in Singapore, able to rumble within the ladies’s 50m/100m fly and 100m free.
26-year-old Gallagher stated, “The 100 fly I’m excited to see what I can do and see the place I’m and what enhancements I could make, however I’ve put lots of my vitality and focus onto the 50 fly and 100 free.
Reflecting on final yr’s Olympic Video games, Gallagher commented, “I really feel significantly better in my physique and significantly better in coaching, so I’m actually trying ahead to world champs as a result of I really feel prefer it’s going to be a approach higher reflection of what I’m able to doing within the pool.”
Learn the complete story on SwimSwam: Straight From Germany To Singapore, World Chief Pieter Coetze Prepared To Rumble
