17-Yr-Old Pieter Coetze Is Sole Day One Start List Absence

2021 FINA SHORT COURSE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Thursday, December 16th – Tuesday, December 21st
• Etihad Arena, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
• SCM (25m)
• Prize Money
• Meet Site
• Psych Sheet
• Live Results

Here we go with the first day of the 2021 FINA Short Course World Championships kicking off tomorrow, Thursday, December 16th from Abu Dhabi.

Day one brings the women’s 50m breaststroke, 400m IM, 100m back and 4x100m free relay while the men’s races include the 100m back, 100m breast, 200m IM and 4x100m free relay.

Comparing the psych sheet linked above to the day one start lists on Omega, just one swimmer’s name stuck out as not being reconciled between the two. That swimmer is South Africa’s Pieter Coetze, the 2020 Olympian who, like World Record holder and World Junior Record holder teammates Tatjana Schoenmaker and Matt Sates are unable to travel out of South Africa.

17-year-old Coetze confirmed to SwimSwam that he will instead be racing at a local meet in his native Pretoria instead of contesting the trio of backstroke events along with the 100m IM here in Abu Dhabi. Coetze’s entry times of 50.86 in the 100m back and 1:51.40 in the 200m back put him in the conversation of making the final in each if he was up to form.

Also, as a reminder, several swimmers have already withdrawn due to other reasons, including the following:

• Amerian Hunter Armstrong pulls out of 200m back
• British swimmer Abbie Wood has mono
• Italy’s Fabio Scozzoli due to positive COVID-19 test
• Felipe Lima of Brazil due to personal reasons
• Sweden’s Victor Johansson has a broken finger