New world 100m backstroke champion Pieter Coetzé threw down the gauntlet in the 200m backstroke on Thursday as he claimed pole position for the final on Friday.
Coetzé, racing on his own out in lane 8 after taking the final 16th spot in the morning heats, sped across the eight laps to win his evening semifinal in a 1min 54.22sec African record.
His time would have won gold at the Paris Olympics last year.
Coetzé admitted that his slow swim in the morning had spurred him into action in the evening.
“I definitely paced myself wrongly this morning and took a big risk but barely made it in 16th place. It gave me a lot of motivation and I felt honoured and blessed to actually make it through and even be here tonight, so I think that put in a very good state of mind to go out there and put together a good race,” he said.
At one point, deep into the race, Coetzé had been inside world-record pace.
“To be on the world record in the last 50 — not the first 50 — I honestly think this is probably one of the best world records.”
American Aaron Peirsol set the 1:51.92 mark in 2009.
“I don’t think people have really got close to it in a long time. Hopefully as we’ll all get better we can challenge for it one day soon,” added Coetzé, who wore the cap of teammate Kaylene Corbett after forgetting to bring his own.
Frenchman Yohan Ndoye-Brouard won the other semifinal in 1:54.47, just ahead of Olympic champion Hubert Kos of Hungary in 1:54.64.
Coetzé, who ended seventh in this event at the Paris showpiece, is a racer and he will surely thrive when he’s swimming alongside his main rivals.
But it’s worth remembering that Kos, who has a 1:54.14 best, could have more gas in the final. An hour and 17 minutes before his backstroke semifinal he competed in the 200m individual medley final, taking bronze behind French star Leon Marchand and American Shaine Casas.
Coetzé is bidding to become the second South African to win a 100m-200m world championship double after Chad le Clos in the butterfly in 2013.
Earlier, Kaylene Corbett advanced to the 200m breaststroke final as she ended fourth in her semifinal in 2:23.81, ranking seventh overall.
Corbett is no stranger to the big time, having swum in the 200m breaststroke finals at the Tokyo and Paris Olympics, the 2019 world championships, plus the 2018 and 2022 Commonwealth Games.
But this will be the first time she’s competing without her retired training partner, Tatjana Smith. Up front American Olympic champion Kate Douglass (2:20.96) and Russian world record-holder Evgenia Chikunova (2:20.65) are expected to battle it out for gold in Friday’s final.
The only South Africans scheduled for action on Friday morning are Erin Gallagher in the women’s 50m butterfly and Catherine van Rensburg in the women’s 800m freestyle.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.