Coetzé claims three backstroke titles on Silk Road Tour

Pieter Coetzé overcame a sluggish start in Astana, Kazakhstan, last night to win the 50m backstroke and claim the overall men’s World Cup crown.

The 22-year-old joined the pantheon of South African swimmers to have finished the short-course series as the best male swimmer: Ryk Neethling, Cameron van der Burgh, Chad Le Clos and Matthew Sates.

But he had to work hard for it.

Coetzé, who set the 22.09sec 50m backstroke world record last week, was second into the turn behind Ralf Tribuntsov of Estonia but ahead of the Russian duo of Pavel Samusenko and Egor Kornev.

And then the Tuks swimmer dug deep, showing his talent and his love for racing as he covered the final 25m lap in 11.28sec — 0.07 faster than his nearest rival to touch first in 22.36.

Samusenko was second in 22.49 and Kornev third in 22.81.

Going into the race, Coetzé was lying seventh on the overall male rankings, but afterwards he was on top with a total of 172.9 points, ahead of Kornev on 170.7.

The overall win meant Coetzé earned a bonus of $100,000 (R1.65m), along with the $10,000 prize for winning all three 50m backstroke crowns on the three-gala tour that also went to Baku, Azerbaijan, and then Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

Coetzé also won all three in both the 100m and 200m backstroke races to ensure a profitable venture on what was dubbed the Silk Road Tour. “I’m very happy with that,” said Coetzé, who earned $162,000 (nearly R2.7m) in total prize money.

“I think we’re all very tired. I wasn’t expecting anything crazy, but I knew I had to show up. The standard of the field is high.”

Next up for the star swimmer is the short-course world championships in Beijing from December 1-6.

At the last showpiece in Budapest in 2024, South Africa failed to win silverware, but they were without their main stars like Coetzé, who took a break after the Paris Olympics, and Tatjana Smith, who retired but later made a comeback.

Both Smith and Coetzé, the reigning 100m backstroke long-course world champion, have yet to win a global crown in a 25m pool.

Meanwhile, Rebecca Meder finished fifth in the women’s 200m individual medley in 2min 07.27sec yesterday.

Michael Houlie, the breaststroke sprint specialist, was fifth in the 100m race, but he had the satisfaction of clocking 25.99 over the first half, the fastest opening 50m recorded in a short-course pool. And Matthew Caldwell ended sixth in the men’s 800m freestyle in 7:52.51.