Coetzé achieves double crown as SA swimmers shine in World Cup series

South African swimmers wrapped up a successful World Aquatics Swimming World Cup series in Singapore on Saturday with Pieter Coetzé claiming seven victories in total and ultimately securing fourth place in the overall standings.

This year’s series took place over three legs – in Shanghai, Incheon and Singapore with significant prize money up for grabs.

Coetzé became the first swimmer of the series to achieve a coveted “crown” by winning a third straight 200m backstroke race of the series on Thursday in 1:49.88. He followed that up with a third victory in the 100m backstroke on Saturday in 49:36 seconds, earning $10 000 for each crown.

The 20-year-old broke two African records on his way to seven golds, two silvers and two bronzes over the three World Cups.

That saw the Pretoria swimmer finishing fourth overall in the series behind French Olympic superstar Leon Marchand, world record-holder Noe Ponti of Switzerland and Briton Duncan Scott.

“I’m super tired. I've never raced this much in such a short amount of time so thankfully we're coming to the end of it and I’m very happy to get the crown,” Coetzé told the crowd after winning his first crown, adding after the second that the results have been a bonus considering these events have formed part of his training."

'NO PRESSURE'

“I didn't have any expectations or hopes,” he said. “It’s part of my training, the World Cups, so I didn't really expect anything, but I’m very happy with that.

“I think that's what makes the World Cup so much fun is there's no pressure, you’re just racing your friends.”

Meanwhile, it took Chad le Clos a little longer to achieve his first victory of the series. That came in the 200m butterfly at the Singapore leg on Friday as the veteran surged ahead of American Trenton Julian for the win in 1:50.42. That took his all-time World Cup gold medal tally to an incredible 152.

The 32-year-old had finished second to Julian in the 200m butterfly in both of the previous two legs.

Le Clos admitted afterwards that it had been a tough race and he was grateful to have got his hand on the wall first.

“After the Olympics, I had a bit of a break, got the shoulder rehab and got everything better,” he explained. “So looking at it as a whole, it’s been a really good tour and obviously the highlight was ending off with the gold in a really quick time – 1:50.4. It was a very important win for me, just because of the fact that… I haven’t not picked up a gold medal [while competing in the World Cup series] since 2009, since I was 17 so it’s a pretty cool record to have.

“So I’m just grateful to be here still and competing with this new generation which is outstanding.”

Le Clos finished the 2024 series with one gold, two silvers and one bronze to finish 20th overall.

The only other South African to medal during the series was Rebecca Meder who competed at the first leg in Shanghai where she achieved three third-place finishes, in the 100 and 200m breaststroke and the 200m individual medley.

The 22-year-old expressed her excitement at having competed on the World Cup circuit for the first time.

“You train so hard all the time, so the racing is the fun part… it has definitely lit another little fire in me and I’m excited to see what I can do at world short course. Overall I’m extremely happy with where I’m at and my swims,” said Meder.

“After another few weeks of hard, focused work, I think I can definitely try and drop those times even more.”

Focus now switches to the World Short Course Championships taking place in Budapest, Hungary from 10-15 December.

World Aquatics Swimming World Cup results

Shanghai:

Gold: Pieter Coetzé (100m & 200m backstroke)

Silver: Pieter Coetzé (50m backstroke) Chad le Clos (200m butterfly)

Bronze: Pieter Coetzé (100m freestyle), Chad le Clos (100m butterfly) Rebecca Meder (100m & 200m breaststroke, 200m individual medley)

Incheon:

Gold: Pieter Coetzé  (50m, 100m & 200m backstroke)

Silver: Chad le Clos (200m butterfly)

Bronze: Pieter Coetzé (100m freestyle)

Singapore:

Gold: Pieter Coetzé (100m & 200m backstroke), Chad le Clos (200m butterfly)

Silver: Pieter Coetzé (50m backstroke)