{"id":9815,"date":"2024-02-13T07:04:18","date_gmt":"2024-02-13T05:04:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/?p=9815"},"modified":"2024-02-13T07:04:21","modified_gmt":"2024-02-13T05:04:21","slug":"coetze-powers-into-world-champs-backstroke-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/?p=9815","title":{"rendered":"Coetz\u00e9 powers into world champs backstroke final"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>PRESS RELEASE<a><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Coetz\u00e9 powers into world champs backstroke final<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>12 February 2024 \u2013 Pretoria teenager Pieter Coetz\u00e9 will fight for South Africa\u2019s first medal at the World Aquatics Championships in Doha on Tuesday after powering into the 100m backstroke final.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The 19-year-old won his morning heat in a time of 53.32 seconds to progress to the evening semifinals as the fastest qualifier. He then won his semifinal in 53.07 to book a place in Tuesday night\u2019s final as the second quickest on the night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m feeling good, happy to make it back to the final,\u201d he said afterwards. \u201cThat\u2019s all I really wanted to do so now I\u2019m just going to go back, relax and recover and hopefully be back stronger tomorrow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m not really planning on changing anything, just hoping to focus on my strengths and to allow my body to do what I know it\u2019s been doing daily for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Meanwhile, competing in her first ever World Championships final after setting a new African record on Sunday, Erin Gallagher finished seventh in the 100m butterfly in 57.83 seconds. Germany\u2019s Angelina Kohler claimed the gold medal in a time of 56.28 with American Claire Curzan taking silver in 56.61 and Sweden\u2019s Louise Hansson the bronze in 56.94.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m very happy and blessed to have swum in my first ever world champs final,\u201d said Gallagher. \u201cIt was such an incredible experience. There\u2019s a lot to take away from the race. I think my coach wanted me to go out faster in the first 50, which I\u2019m happy I was able to do. The second 50 hurt just a little bit more but there\u2019s so much to learn from this going forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m looking forward to the rest of the week and just seeing what I can do. It\u2019s very good race practice for the year ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lara van Niekerk was some way off her best time in both the heats and semifinal of the 100m breaststroke. She finished sixth in her heat in 1:07.61 but, unlike Lithuania\u2019s defending world champion Ruta Meilutyte, still managed to progress to the semifinals where she then finished in seventh place in 1:07.25 and out of finals contention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt was a tough race but I felt good, better than in Japan last year even though it was slightly slower. I\u2019m getting my rhythm back and swimming more like my old stroke which is a positive,\u201d said Van Niekerk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI did have a better swim in the semifinal than in the heats this morning so our adjustments did work and we are getting there but there\u2019s still a lot of work to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis is what this gala was all about \u2013 to see what we still need to adjust and do leading up to Paris.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Earlier in the day, Stephanie Houtman won her 1500m freestyle heat in a time of 16:35.39 to finish 18<sup>th<\/sup> overall and did not progress to the final.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The only other South Africans in action were 17-year-old Milla Drakopoulos who finished 26<sup>th<\/sup> overall in the women\u2019s 100m backstroke heats in 1:02.80 and Matt Sates who was 27<sup>th<\/sup> overall in the 200m freestyle after finishing eighth in his heat in 1:47.98. Both missed out on a spot in the evening semifinals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Swimming continues on Tuesday morning with Dun\u00e9 Coetzee (200m freestyle), Chad le Clos and Matt Sates (both 200m butterfly) all in action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>&#8211; ENDS &#8211;<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>PRESS RELEASE Coetz\u00e9 powers into world champs backstroke final 12 February 2024 \u2013 Pretoria teenager Pieter Coetz\u00e9 will fight for South Africa\u2019s first medal at&hellip;<\/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\/9815"}],"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=9815"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9815\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9816,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9815\/revisions\/9816"}],"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=9815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kznaquatics.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}