{"id":10451,"date":"2024-11-02T19:33:04","date_gmt":"2024-11-02T17:33:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/?p=10451"},"modified":"2024-11-02T19:35:46","modified_gmt":"2024-11-02T17:35:46","slug":"press-release-11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/?p=10451","title":{"rendered":"PRESS RELEASE"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Coetz\u00e9 achieves double crown as SA swimmers shine in World Cup series<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Coetz\u00e9 achieves double crown as SA swimmers shine in World Cup series<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2 November 2024 \u2013 South African swimmers wrapped up a successful World Aquatics Swimming World Cup series in Singapore on Saturday with Pieter Coetz\u00e9 claiming seven victories in total and ultimately securing fourth place in the overall standings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year\u2019s series took place over three legs \u2013 in Shanghai, Incheon and Singapore with significant prize money up for grabs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coetz\u00e9 became the first swimmer of the series to achieve a coveted \u201ccrown\u201d by winning a third straight 200m backstroke race of the series on Thursday in 1:49.88. He followed that up with a third victory in the 100m backstroke on Saturday in 49:36 seconds, earning US10,000 for each crown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 20-year-old broke two African records on his way to seven golds, two silvers and two bronzes over the three World Cups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That saw the Pretoria swimmer finishing fourth overall in the series behind French Olympic superstar Leon Marchand, world record-holder Noe Ponti of Switzerland and Briton Duncan Scott.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m super tired. I’ve never raced this much in such a short amount of time so thankfully we’re coming to the end of it and I\u2019m very happy to get the crown,\u201d Coetz\u00e9 told the crowd after winning his first crown, adding after the second that the results have been a bonus considering these events have formed part of his training.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI didn’t have any expectations or hopes,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s part of my training, the World Cups, so I didn’t really expect anything, but I\u2019m very happy with that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think that’s what makes the World Cup so much fun is there’s no pressure, you\u2019re just racing your friends.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, it took Chad le Clos a little longer to achieve his first victory of the series. That came in the 200m butterfly at the Singapore leg on Friday as the veteran surged ahead of American Trenton Julian for the win in 1:50.42. That took his all-time World Cup gold medal tally to an incredible 152.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 32-year-old had finished second to Julian in the 200m butterfly in both of the previous two legs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Le Clos admitted afterwards that it had been a tough race and he was grateful to have got his hand on the wall first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAfter the Olympics, I had a bit of a break, got the shoulder rehab and got everything better,\u201d he explained. \u201cSo looking at it as a whole, it\u2019s been a really good tour and obviously the highlight was ending off with the gold in a really quick time \u2013 1:50.4. It was a very important win for me, just because of the fact that\u2026 I haven\u2019t not picked up a gold medal [while competing in the World Cup series] since 2009, since I was 17 so it\u2019s a pretty cool record to have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo I\u2019m just grateful to be here still and competing with this new generation which is outstanding.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Le Clos finished the 2024 series with one gold, two silvers and one bronze to finish 20th<\/sup> overall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The only other South African to medal during the series was Rebecca Meder who competed at the first leg in Shanghai where she achieved three third-place finishes, in the 100 and 200m breaststroke and the 200m individual medley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 22-year-old expressed her excitement at having competed on the World Cup circuit for the first time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou train so hard all the time, so the racing is the fun part\u2026 it has definitely lit another little fire in me and I\u2019m excited to see what I can do at world short course. Overall I\u2019m extremely happy with where I\u2019m at and my swims,\u201d said Meder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAfter another few weeks of hard, focused work, I think I can definitely try and drop those times even more.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Focus now switches to the World Short Course Championships taking place in Budapest, Hungary from 10-15 December.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

World Aquatics Swimming World Cup results<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shanghai:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gold: Pieter Coetz\u00e9 (100m & 200m backstroke)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Silver: Pieter Coetz\u00e9 (50m backstroke) Chad le Clos (200m butterfly)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bronze: Pieter Coetz\u00e9 (100m freestyle), Chad le Clos (100m butterfly) Rebecca Meder (100m & 200m breaststroke, 200m individual medley)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Incheon:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gold: Pieter Coetz\u00e9  (50m, 100m & 200m backstroke)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Silver: Chad le Clos (200m butterfly)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bronze: Pieter Coetz\u00e9 (100m freestyle)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Singapore:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gold: Pieter Coetz\u00e9 (100m & 200m backstroke), Chad le Clos (200m butterfly)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Silver: Pieter Coetz\u00e9 (50m backstroke)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Coetz\u00e9 achieves double crown as SA swimmers shine in World Cup series PRESS RELEASE Coetz\u00e9 achieves double crown as SA swimmers shine in World Cup…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":9789,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_customify_content_layout":"","_customify_sidebar":"","_customify_page_header_display":"default","_customify_disable_header":"","_customify_disable_header_top":"","_customify_disable_header_main":"","_customify_disable_header_bottom":"","_customify_disable_page_title":"","_customify_disable_content_vertical_padding":"","_customify_disable_footer_top":"","_customify_disable_footer_main":"","_customify_disable_footer_bottom":"","_customify_breadcrumb_display":"","_customify_header_transparent_display":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10451"}],"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=10451"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10451\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10452,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10451\/revisions\/10452"}],"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=10451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}