{"id":11221,"date":"2025-08-01T16:45:47","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T14:45:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/?p=11221"},"modified":"2025-08-01T16:46:46","modified_gmt":"2025-08-01T14:46:46","slug":"press-release-26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/?p=11221","title":{"rendered":"PRESS RELEASE"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SA stars add silver and bronze to world champs haul with prospect for more to come<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

1 August 2025 \u2013 The South African flag was raised twice more at the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore on Friday as Pieter Coetz\u00e9 claimed silver in the 200m backstroke and Kaylene Corbett a bronze in the 200m breaststroke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After his victory in the 100m backstroke on Tuesday, Coetz\u00e9 lined up among the favourites, having qualified fastest for the final of the 200m event with a new African record in the semifinals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Pretoria swimmer went out hard in the final, turning first at both the 50 and 100m marks under world record pace, but was hunted down in the second half of the race by Olympic champion Hubert K\u03ccs. While Coetz\u00e9 closed in on the Hungarian in the final metres of the race, he just couldn\u2019t out-touch him, finishing second in 1:53.36 seconds, just 0.17 of a second off the gold. That took almost a second off the African record he set in the semifinals and is the seventh fastest time in history. Both K\u03ccs and Coetz\u00e9\u2019s times beat K\u03ccs\u2019s gold medal-winning time from last year\u2019s Olympic Games in Paris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cComing into this, I didn\u2019t really expect to go that fast. This has exceeded all my expectations and it\u2019s just a big honour to be in a race like that,\u201d said an elated Coetz\u00e9 afterwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI kind of expected to be out very fast. I could feel that I was moving at a high pace, and I knew that I would feel it in the end, and I did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s a big PB for me so I\u2019m super-happy with the time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just one race later, Corbett dived in for the final of the 200m breaststroke.  The 26-year-old reached the first turn in fifth place and steadily worked her way up to fourth by the second and third. A final push saw her surging into medal contention, claiming a joint bronze medal with Russian Alina Zmushka in a time of 2:23.52.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Olympic champion Kate Douglass of the USA took the gold in a championship record time of 2:18.50, the second fastest time in history, with world record-holder Evgeniia Chikunova second in 2:19.96.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a really hectic year, and it just feels like it really came together when it should, so I\u2019m just really, really stoked about it. I\u2019m very, very happy,\u201d said an emotional Corbett after claiming her first world championship medal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI just think that I gave everything I had, and I\u2019m just really proud of myself with that performance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Pretoria swimmer has reached all her previous major finals alongside South Africa\u2019s four-time Olympic medallist and former world-record holder Tatjana Smith and added: \u201cEven though the world record-holder was there [tonight], even though the Olympic champion was there, I\u2019ve been fortunate enough to swim next to Tatjana, so I know that those titles don\u2019t always mean everything all the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been fortunate enough to swim under pressure next to her my whole career basically so it\u2019s really special to be able to win this medal. I just wish she was on the podium with me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, Erin Gallagher added more joy for the South Africans, finishing second in her 50m butterfly semifinal to book a spot in Saturday\u2019s final. The 26-year-old powered to a time of 23.39 seconds, bettering her own national record and finishing just one hundredth of a second off Egyptian Farida Osman\u2019s continental mark. That sees Gallagher through to the final as the third fastest qualifier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m so happy with that swim. I honestly think I owe it to Pieter and Kaylene, my teammates, for winning medals tonight,\u201d said Gallagher afterwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was in the call-room screaming, and they just got me excited for my race and I thought I can\u2019t drop the ball \u2013 my teammates have done so incredibly well, I need to get into that final tonight and I think that spurred me on in the race.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier in the day, Catherine van Rensburg finished 25th<\/sup> overall in the 800m freestyle in a time of 8 minutes 50.60 seconds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019ll be a busy day for the South African team in Singapore on Saturday with Coetz\u00e9 returning to the pool for the 50m backstroke and Corbett for the 50m breaststroke, while Caitlin de Lange will be taking on the 50m freestyle. The mixed 4x100m freestyle relay team will also be in action before Gallagher\u2019s 50m butterfly final in the evening session. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

SA stars add silver and bronze to world champs haul with prospect for more to come 1 August 2025 \u2013 The South African flag was…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":9760,"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\/11221"}],"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=11221"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11222,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11221\/revisions\/11222"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}