2025 World Championships
- July 27 – August 3, 2025 (pool swimming)
- Singapore, Singapore
- World Aquatics Championships Arena
- LCM (50m)
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21-year-old Pieter Coetze became the men’s 100m backstroke world champion tonight in Singapore, establishing new South African national and African continental records in the process.
The one-time Cal commit fired off a monster personal best of 51.85 to get to the wall first, beating reigning world record holder and Olympic champion Thomas Ceccon of Italy in the process.
24-year-old Ceccon settled for silver only .05 behind in 51.90. Then, Frenchman Yohann Ndoye-Brouard was next in line by another extremely slim margin, earning bronze in 51.92.
As for Coetze, tonight’s performance is a stellar follow-up to his first-ever sub-52-second time of 51.99 put on the books just two weeks ago at the World University Games. That previous outing represented the South African and African records so the TUKS student was able to slice another .14 off of that newly-minted record-setting performance.
Coetze’s 51.85 was comprised of splits of 24.95/26.90 in this breakthrough swim.
| Coetze’s New 51.85 African Record | Coetze’s Old 51.99 African Record |
| 24.95 | 25.19 |
| 26.90 | 26.80 |
The young South African now ties American Olympic champion Ryan Murphy as the 3rd-swiftest performer in history.
Top 10 Men’s LCM 100 Backstroke Performers All-Time
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- Thomas Ceccon (ITA), 51.60 – 2022
- Kliment Kolesnikov (RUS), 51.82 – 2023
- Ryan Murphy (USA) / Pieter Coetze (RSA), 51.85 – 2016 / 2025
- –
- Xu Jiayu (CHN), 51.86 – 2017
- Yohann Ndoye-Brouard (FRA), 51.92 – 2025
- Aaron Peirsol (USA), 51.94 – 2009
- Evgeny Rylov (RUS), 51.97 – 2019
- Hunter Armstrong (USA), 51.98 – 2022
- Matt Grevers (USA) / Miron Lifintsev (RUS) – 2012 / 2024
With his victory tonight, Coetze becomes the first swimmer since China’s Qin Haiyang in 2023 to win both the WUGS and World titles in the same year. His compatriot Tatjana Smith holds the distinction of being the first swimmer since 1992 to hold the WUGs, Worlds, and Olympic titles in one event at the same time, albeit winning them in different years.
Coetze’s delivering a solid 51.99 in WUG seems like a prologue to the feat he performed here in Singapore.
Great work by Coach Rocco once again
Two Cal commits, two 51.85s lol
He wasn’t even initially in the SS finalist predictions.
Wonderful job!! Well deserved, excellent race!
I just don’t understand the sentiment that it is insane to have 2 taper meets within over a week of each other? I thought this was something more common and understood where you can still ride a taper for more than one meet if done right?
I was questioning the wisdom of competing (and seemingly peaking) in WUG
I was wrong.
Crazy performance over a week.
Chad needs to get himself back in shape and Cameron needs to quit his job NOW
😂😂😂
Honestly, Chris Smith is looking great. Juice Chad to the gills + make Guy Brooks a dedicated sprinter and that medley relay is on point.
Who are Chad and Cameron (serious question)?
Chad le clos and Cameron van der Burg. Former elite athletes from South Africa who are mostly or fully retired now? Cameron was an Olympic gold medalist in 100 BR before Peaty came, and Chad was an elite 100-200 flyer and can also do 200 free.