{"id":11225,"date":"2025-08-03T15:48:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-03T13:48:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/?p=11225"},"modified":"2025-08-03T15:48:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-03T13:48:15","slug":"press-release-28","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/?p=11225","title":{"rendered":"PRESS RELEASE"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Coetz\u00e9 makes it three from three with another silver in Singapore<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

3 August 2025 \u2013 Pieter Coetz\u00e9 wrapped up an exceptional World Aquatics Championships by getting his hands on another silver medal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 21-year-old added the 50m backstroke silver to his 100m gold and 200m silver, so becoming the only man to reach the podium for all three backstroke events at these championships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coetz\u00e9 lined up for the 50m final as the third fastest qualifier behind two Russians \u2013 world record-holder Kliment Kolesnikov and Pavel Samusenko \u2013 after swimming an African record in Saturday\u2019s semifinal. He went even quicker in the final, powering across the pool in another continental record time of 24.17 seconds to share the silver with Samusenko, who touched in exactly the same time, with Kolesnikov taking the gold in a championship record of 23.68 seconds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever tied in a final at this level, so it\u2019s pretty cool,\u201d said a thrilled Coetz\u00e9 afterwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m very happy. I don\u2019t really train for the 50, I train for the 200, so to be able to go down so far and win a medal in the 50 is amazing,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cKliment went very fast. That\u2019s an extremely fast time, so it was an honour to be in that race and hopefully I can push myself and also get below 24 seconds.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With his performances in Singapore, Coetz\u00e9 equalled Roland Schoeman\u2019s record of claiming three medals at a single long-course world championships \u2013 the former Olympic champion having achieved the feat in 2005. What is also impressive is that he achieved big personal bests and continental records in each of his events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s amazing. It\u2019s something I always dreamed of,\u201d said the Pretoria star. \u201cI can see myself making strides towards being the swimmer I always knew I could be, so it\u2019s nice to see that I\u2019m improving and getting there slowly. But I\u2019ve always believed it, and a part of me had always known, so now to see it in front of me is amazing. I\u2019m very proud and blessed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier in the day, the South African quartet of Olivia Nel, Rebecca Meder, Erin Gallagher and Aimee Canny blazed to a new national and continental record of 3:59.47 in the 4x100m medley relay, but just missed out on the final by one place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was so good. A little before the relay, we were all just taking a little peek at the African record because we realised the group of girls we were sitting with, and we totally knew it was possible, so the fact that we got that was so awesome,\u201d said Nel afterwards, with the group also expressing their goal of a podium place at next year\u2019s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, Coetz\u00e9\u2019s silver on the final day of the championships meant South Africa finished in 11th<\/sup> place on the swimming medal table in Singapore, which was topped by the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Coetz\u00e9 makes it three from three with another silver in Singapore 3 August 2025 \u2013 Pieter Coetz\u00e9 wrapped up an exceptional World Aquatics Championships by…<\/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\/11225"}],"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=11225"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11225\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11226,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11225\/revisions\/11226"}],"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=11225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}