Pieter Coetzé brings heat to 100m freestyle with second-fastest all-time morning swim at SA champs

Pieter Coetzé delivered the second-fastest morning 100m freestyle swim at a South African championships on Thursday morning when he clocked 48.75sec to set the pace in the heats in Gqeberha.

He was one-hundredth of a second slower than Gideon Louw’s effort at the 2012 South African gala in Durban, which also counted as Olympic trials.

Coetzé, the 100m backstroke world champion, looked effortless as he glided across the Newton Park pool a full body length in front of his rivals, showing a mastery of a discipline which he hasn’t focused on in training.

He was the only one in the field to dip under 49 seconds, with the next fastest, Guy Brooks, going 49.12 in a separate heat.

Kris Mihaylov, the 200m freestyle champion and one of the rising stars of the sport, was third quickest in 50.67 and mechanical engineering student Ruard van Renen fourth in 50.71.

There has been excitement in some quarters of South African swimming about the prospect of a men’s 4x100m freestyle relay team that could try to match the feats of the Olympic champion outfit from Athens 2004.

But they will all need to go substantially faster in the final. The qualifying time for the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow is 48.34, a time Coetzé has beaten on three occasions in the past year: he went 48.30 at the 2025 World Student Games semifinals in Germany, 48.12 in the final and then 47.88 in the first leg of the 4x100m freestyle relay there.

That last effort made him the second-fastest South African of all time behind record-holder Lyndon Ferns, who clocked 47.79 in the heats at the 2009 world championships in Rome.

In the women’s 100m freestyle, the 54.25 qualifying time is only two-hundredths of a second slower than the 54.23 national record held by Erin Gallagher, who cruised through the heats to 56.16.

Caitlin de Lange was the fastest of the morning in 55.48, with the Nel twins, Olivia and Georgia, going 55.77 and 55.86 respectively.

Kaylene Corbett, the world championship 200m breaststroke bronze medallist, was the fastest in her specialist event, going 2min 27.41sec.

Aimee Canny, who has already won the 100m breaststroke, 200m freestyle and 200m individual medley titles here, was second-fastest in 2:29.59 with defending champion Rebecca Meder next best in 2:30.93.

Corbett and Meder have been under the 2:25.91 Commonwealth criterion before, while Canny is in new territory. Expect her to speed up considerably.

In other morning action, Matthew Randle went 2:15.76 to take the top seeding in the men’s 200m breaststroke, which has a 2:10.32 qualification standard.

New Zealand-based Karl Albertyn, who won the 200m IM on Wednesday, went 4:34.16 in the 400m IM heats, where the ticket to Scotland is set at 4:17.48.

Catherine van Rensburg was the fastest in the women’s 400m IM in 5:00.07. The qualifying standard is 4:43.06.

• Isaacson is at the Bombela Concession Company South African championships in Gqeberha at the invitation of Swimming South Africa.

TimesLIVE