Double medal delight for SA as Coetzé, Corbett shine at World Champs

News24

a day ago

South African swimming sensation Pieter Coetzé continued to make a splash in the pool when he bagged his second medal of the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore on Friday.
Shortly thereafter, Kaylene Corbett delivered a dominant final 50m as she snatched bronze in the 200m breaststroke final.
READ | SA's new swimming champ Coetzé: How a healthy balance away from the sport reaped rewards
Twenty-one-year-old Coetzé came close to completing the double as he took silver in the men's 200m backstroke final.
Swimming in lane four, Coetzé led from the start and turned with his nose in front at the halfway mark, but Olympic champion Hubert Kos of Hungary powered through the final 100m to edge the South African.
Coetzé claimed silver to shave time off the African record once again as he touched the wall in 1:53.36, with Hos securing gold in 1:53.19 and Frenchman Yohann Ndoye-Brouard (1:54.62) completed the podium.
In the build-up to Friday's final, Coetzé came in as a hot favourite after finishing as the fastest qualifier in the semi-final, taking 1.38 seconds off his African record (1:55.60) set in Paris as he powered to 1:54.22 to make his second consecutive final.
Earlier in the week, Coetzé got South Africa on the World Aquatics Championships medal table when he bagged gold in the 100m backstroke final.
🥇 - Men's 100m Backstroke
🥈 - Men's 200m Backstroke
Pieter Coetze picks up his second podium finish at the World Champs 🇿🇦🏊♂️
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— SuperSport 🏆 (@SuperSportTV) August 1, 2025
Shortly thereafter, Olympic finalist Corbett won her first World Aquatics Championship medal as she finished tied for third in the women's 200m breaststroke final.
Corbett, swimming in lane one, kept up with American Kate Douglass, who held a comfortable lead of the field throughout the race.
Douglass touched the wall to win gold in 2:18.50 with Russian swimmer Evgeniia Chikunova claiming silver in 2:19.96.
Corbett, who finished fifth at the Paris Olympics, was languishing at fourth before she powered through the final 50m to touch the wall in 2:23.52 for a podium finish.
The 26-year-old touched the wall at the same as Belarusian Alina Zmushka and both ended with bronze.
Meanwhile, South Africa's Erin Gallagher finished third-fastest to qualify for the women's 50m butterfly final when she came second in a time of 25.39 in the semi-finals.