Coetze Comes Close To 100 Back National Record On Day 4 Of South African Trials

2024 SOUTH AFRICAN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS (OLYMPIC TRIALS)

• Monday, April 8th – Saturday, April 13th
• Newton Park Swimming Pool, Gqeberha, South Africa
• LCM (50m)
• SwimSwam Preview
• Day 1 Recap/Day 2 Recap/Day 3 Recap
• Results

19-year-old Pieter Coetze continued his peak form at the 2024 South African National Championships, earning a near-lifetime best of 52.89 en route to 100m back gold.

After claiming the top seed with an AM effort of 53.05, Coetze turned on another gear to clock 25.38/27.51 to notch the 3rd-swifts performance of his young career.

Ruard Van Renen was next to the wall in 54.50 while Henju Duvenhage rounded out the podium in 55.25.

Coetze’s time tonight outperformed the 53.51 he turned in at Doha to place 5th in the event. It also marks the teen’s 5th outing under the 53-second barrier. He fell just .11 outside of the 52.78 national record he established at the 2023 edition of these championships.

Top 5 LCM 100 Back Performances of Pieter Coetze‘s Career

1. 52.78 – 2023 South African National Championships *Current national record
2. 52.89 – 2024 South African National Championships
3. 52.95 – 2022 World Junior Championships (semi-finals)
4. 52.96 – 2023 Acropolis Swim Open
5. 52.99 – 2022 World Junior Championships

Additional Notes

• 19-year-old Dakota Turner earned the women’s 400m IM victory in a time of 4:47.09, the sole outing of the field under 4:53.
• The men’s 400m IM saw 18-year-old Kian Keylock get it done for gold in 4:25.06, beating the field by over 4 seconds.
• Milla Drakopoulos hit a time of 1:01.70 to take the women’s 100m back. Drakapoulos is just 17 years of age and she owns a personal best of 1:01.28 from the semifinals of last year’s World Junior Championships.
• University of Georgia swimmer Dune Coetzee doubled up on her 200m fly victory from earlier with a win in the 400m free. The 21-year-old clocked a mark of 4:09.43 to beat the field by nearly 8 seconds. She came close to the Olympic QT of 4:07.90 en route to producing the first sub-4:10 performance of her career
• Matthew Caldwell notched 3:54.27 to take the men’s 400m free about a second ahead of 16-year-old Kris Mihaylov. Mihaylov put up a time of 3:55.37 as a follow-up to his impressive 1:49.66 200m free on day 3 which gave him silver.

South African Olympic Qualifiers Through Day 4 of Trials

• Pieter Coetze – Men’s 100m back, 200m back
• Tatjana Smith – Women’s 200 breast
• Kaylene Corbett – Women’s 200m breast