World and Commonwealth Games champion Pieter Coetzé reached the pinnacle of global short-course swimming on Friday, breaking the world record in the men’s 50m backstroke on Day 2 of the World Aquatics Swimming World Cup leg in Tashkent.
The 22-year-old South African touched the wall in a blistering 22.09 seconds, cutting 0.02 seconds off the previous world benchmark of 22.11 set by Kliment Kolesnikov in 2022.
Turning equal second at the 25-metre mark, Coetzé unleashed a dominant closing split to surge past overall series leader Egor Kornev (22.29) in a thrilling touch finish. Pavel Samusenko rounded out the podium in a time of 22.35.
Out-touching a stacked field, Coetzé admitted after the race that the reality of the achievement took a moment to register on the scoreboard.
“That race was stacked,” Coetzé said in his post-race interview. “We had Isaac Cooper, the world-record holder who’s on fire, and then myself, so I really don’t think I was the favourite going into that one.
“Seeing that time on the board, it didn’t even click that it was a world record. And then, like, a second later, I was like: ‘Oh! — the world record was 22.1.’ So … not many words to describe that. It’s crazy.”
When asked if taking down the world mark changes his outlook for the rest of the circuit, Coetzé insisted his mindset remains grounded.
“I don’t think it changes much. My mindset normally stays the same, no matter what the race is, because, you know, at this level everyone is always close. I mean, the world-record holder was there and look how close it was. So, no, you can never get too comfortable. I’ll just keep doing the same,” he said.
The historic swim marks an incredible half-second drop from Coetzé’s previous continental record of 22.51 set just six days earlier during the opening leg in Baku, Azerbaijan.
There, he spearheaded Team South Africa’s campaign with a four-medal haul — taking gold in both the 100m backstroke in an African record time of 49.11 and 200m backstroke (1:49.64), silver in the 50m backstroke, and bronze in the 100m individual medley (51.60).
Coetzé’s momentum leads a strong South African short-course contingent using the circuit as preparation for the upcoming World Short Course Championships.
Fellow Baku medallists Michael Houlie (50m breaststroke silver) and Aimee Canny (100m breaststroke bronze) — alongside finalists like Matthew Caldwell and Guy Brooks — are leveraging the high-density meets to hone themselves against world-class fields.
With his historic victory in the 50m backstroke, Coetzé firmly establishes himself as a top contender for the overall World Cup series title as the three-week Asian tour heads to its final stop in Astana, Kazakhstan, next week.
