Local swimming star Pieter Coetzé breaks 50m backstroke world record
Coetzé won gold in the sprint final at the short-course World Cup in Tashkent.
South African backstroke swimmer Pieter Coetzé shattered the 50m backstroke world record on Friday at the Swimming World Cup in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The 22-year-old sprint specialist clocked a time of 22.09 seconds, beating his own previous record of 22.51 set at a World Cup gala in Baku, Azerbaijan last week. Coetzé's new mark of 22.09 was a mere 0.02 seconds faster than the previous global short-course record set by Russia's Kliment Kolesnikov in Kazan in November 2022.
This victory marked yet another milestone in Coetzé's impressive career, which includes three medals at the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore last year and six medals at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow earlier this year. With a promising future ahead, Coetzé is poised to continue leading South Africa's pursuit of success at the upcoming Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 2028.
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