Pieter Coetze picked up from where he left off last week when he powered to the gold medal in the men’ 200m. backstroke final at the 2024 World Aquatics Swimming World Cup in Incheon, Korea, on Thursday.
The 20-year-old South African had won two gold medals in the first leg of the three-week series in Shanghai last week, those medals coming in the 100m and 200m backstroke. On Friday in Incheon he again won the 200m backstroke on the opening day. The two-time Team SA Olympian therefore stays on course to make it a three-from-three in the event when the series concludes in Singapore next week.
Although Coetze did not dip under the lifetime best 1min 50sec mark that he did a week ago, his 1:50.05 was good enough to beat Kacper Stokowski by more than a second. The Polish swimmer took the silver in 1:51.56.
Coetze had taken it easy in the morning’s heats on Friday and was only placed third on the timesheets in 1:55.96 heading into the final. However, the prodigious talent turned it on under the night lights to go nearly six seconds quicker.
Coetze also competed in the men’s 50m freestyle, placing 10th in the heat overall in 21.57 and not progressing to the final eight.
Also in action was Chad le Clos, who was another to improve on his morning heats when he took to the water for the evking final. The 32-year-old, who won the bronze medal in the 100m butterfly in Shanghai last week, this time had to settle for fourth position in the final. Although he bettered his morning time of 50.71 with a 49.75 swim in the final, he missed the bronze by 0.04sec. Gold went to Swiss swimmer Noe Ponti in 48.81.
The global highlight was the world record by Kate Douglass in the women’s 200m breaststroke, where she bettered the mark that had stood since 2009, set by Rebecca Soni.
Words by Gary Lemke
Photo of Pieter Coetze by Roger Sedres at Tokyo 2020