{"id":11184,"date":"2025-07-28T15:07:57","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T13:07:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/?p=11184"},"modified":"2025-07-28T15:07:59","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T13:07:59","slug":"press-release-22","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/?p=11184","title":{"rendered":"PRESS RELEASE"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Speedy Coetz\u00e9 secures spot in 100m backstroke final in Singapore<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Speedy Coetz\u00e9 secures spot in 100m backstroke final in Singapore<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

28 July 2025 \u2013 Pieter Coetz\u00e9 booked a spot in the 100m backstroke final at the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore after powering to second place in his semifinal on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 21-year-old star had booked his place in the semifinals with a time of 52.80 seconds in his morning heat and then went quicker in the semis, touching in a time of 52.29.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That saw him qualifying third fastest for the final behind Hungary\u2019s Hubert Kos (52.21) and Russian Kliment Kolesnikov (51.26).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coetz\u00e9 heads into Tuesday night’s final with the fastest time in the world this year after claiming gold at the World University Games in an impressive African record time of 51.99 seconds just nine days ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cIt was good. I just wanted to make it back for the final and I was happy with the time and the swim, and to get second in the semis is a good result,\u201d he said after the semifinal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI knew it was going to be fast\u2026 I\u2019ve swum with most of these guys but the Russians are new to me. I haven\u2019t swum against them and they\u2019re also really fast, but I don\u2019t really focus on the people I\u2019m racing against. I just focus on what I need to do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for the final, Coetz\u00e9 added: \u201cI know what I need to do, so I\u2019ll just go and look at the video and see where I can work on things and come back refreshed tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier in the day, three other South Africans were in action in the morning heats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rebecca Meder finished ninth in her heat and 27th<\/sup> overall in the 100m breaststroke in a time of 1:07.50, explaining afterwards: \u201cIt was a personal best time for me, so I can’t complain, that’s the best I’ve ever swum in the 100 breast.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, Matt Sates finished 32nd<\/sup> overall in the 200m freestyle heats in a time of 1:48.45.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt wasn’t my best one, I think I went out a little bit hard, so I died at the end,\u201d he said afterwards. \u201cBut it’s nice racing for South Africa and to get the first race done.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After finishing 26th<\/sup> overall in the 1500m freestyle, Catherine van Rensburg, who also competed in the open water events at these championships, explained: \u201cThat was very hard. I did not enjoy it really. I felt strong in the warm-up and all, but it looks like it didn’t all work out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Swimming action continues at the World Aquatics Championships on Tuesday with Chris Smith in the 50m breaststroke heats and Aimee Canny in the 200m freestyle heats, while Coetz\u00e9 will be gunning for South Africa\u2019s first medal of the event in the 100m backstroke final in the evening session.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Speedy Coetz\u00e9 secures spot in 100m backstroke final in Singapore PRESS RELEASE Speedy Coetz\u00e9 secures spot in 100m backstroke final in Singapore 28 July 2025…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":9789,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","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\/11184"}],"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=11184"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11184\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11185,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11184\/revisions\/11185"}],"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=11184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}