{"id":10229,"date":"2024-08-01T07:39:19","date_gmt":"2024-08-01T05:39:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/?p=10229"},"modified":"2024-08-01T07:40:37","modified_gmt":"2024-08-01T05:40:37","slug":"smith-and-corbett-return-to-olympic-final-coetze-targets-backstroke-podium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/?p=10229","title":{"rendered":"Smith and Corbett return to Olympic final; Coetz\u00e9 targets backstroke podium"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

PRESS RELEASE<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smith and Corbett return to Olympic final; Coetz\u00e9 targets backstroke podium<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

31 July 2024 \u2013 All three of South Africa\u2019s swimmers in action at the Olympic Games in Paris on Wednesday night progressed to their respective finals with Tatjana Smith taking a step closer to completing her quest for double gold in the French capital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The newly crowned 100m breaststroke champion was beaten to the wall by American Kate Douglass in her 200m breaststroke semifinal, finishing second in 2:19.94, but was nevertheless pleased with the result.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was amazing\u2026 I’m so happy with that time so it doesn’t really matter where I came,\u201d said Smith after the race. \u201cIt was such a good race, I think that’s a part of what sport is, pushing each other<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt really just brings out the best version of me and I can only be happy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also making her way through to her second consecutive Olympic 200m breaststroke final was fellow Pretoria swimmer Kaylene Corbett, who shared the pool with Smith when she won gold in Tokyo in world record time three years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Corbett also finished second in her semifinal behind Dutchwoman Tes Schouten in a time of 2:22.87.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smith progressed to the final as the second-fastest qualifier while Corbett went through as fourth fastest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Corbett was thrilled that her semifinal went much better than her morning heat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was a little bit worried after this morning,\u201d she said. \u201cI really am just happy that I could push through another set, another 200 breaststroke and I think it went really well tonight,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is the fastest I’ve been since Tokyo, so I’m very, very happy with that time, slowly but surely chipping away at what I want one day. There’s definitely still a lot of fuel in the tank for a longer career. It’s not necessarily fuel in the tank for tomorrow, but I’m just really happy that I get to share this moment [with Tatjana].\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, Pieter Coetz\u00e9 booked his spot in his second final of the Games by finishing second behind Switzerland\u2019s Roman Mityukov in his 200m backstroke semifinal in a time of 1:56.09. That sees him through to Thursday night\u2019s final as the third-fastest qualifier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis morning was way more smooth and obviously some races are going to hurt more than others,\u201d he said afterwards. \u201cI definitely felt it a bit tonight, but I think with the rest that I’ll get now before the final the body will recover and I’ll be ready tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked what time he thought it might take to reach the podium, the 20-year-old reckoned: \u201cEveryone’s always talking about times, but I can promise you none of these swimmers care about their times. Maybe in the back of their minds they do, but they\u2019d rather swim a slower time and win a medal than swim their PB.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSpeaking for myself, swim the PB and get fifth place, I would rather swim slow and get a medal. You just never know what to expect, I’m just going to let it happen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Olympic swimming action continues at La Defense Arena in Paris on Thursday morning with Matthew Sates lining up in heat 2 of the 200m individual medley at 11.52am.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coetz\u00e9\u2019s 200m backstroke final is scheduled for 8.38pm tomorrow evening while Smith and Corbett are set to compete in the 200m breaststroke final at 9.11pm. These times are subject to change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– ENDS –<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PRESS RELEASE Smith and Corbett return to Olympic final; Coetz\u00e9 targets backstroke podium 31 July 2024 \u2013 All three of South Africa\u2019s swimmers in action…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":9789,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10229"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10229"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10229\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10230,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10229\/revisions\/10230"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}