In the deep waters of Singapore’s World Aquatics Championships, where only the strongest strokes break the surface tension of international expectation, two South Africans are powering through the lane lines of history.
Pretoria-based teammates Pieter Coetzé and Kaylene Corbett swam their way into the finals on Thursday with the calm resolve and ferocity of seasoned competitors. For both, this meet has become more than just another splash in the calendar — it’s a current pulling them toward legacy.
Coetzé, already glistening with gold from his 100m backstroke triumph, dove back into the fray for the 200m — but his journey to the final wasn’t all smooth sailing. In the morning heats, he barely made the cut, qualifying 16th with a lukewarm 1:57.11, clinging to the ropes of qualification like a swimmer caught in a rip tide. But come evening, he surged like a rip current in reverse.
I definitely paced myself wrong this morning and took a big risk – barely made it in, 16th place. I think that gave me a lot of motivation and I felt very honoured and blessed to make it through to even be here tonight. So, I think that put me in a particularly good state of mind to go out there and put together a very good race tonight.
That good race was a tsunami of redemption — 1:54.22, a new African record, a time fast enough to have secured gold at the Paris Olympics. He took out the first 50m under world record pace, riding the surge too early, perhaps, but riding it nonetheless with heroic recklessness.
[You need] to be on the world record on the last 50, not the first 50.
Meanwhile, Corbett once again proved her mettle in the 200m breaststroke, qualifying for yet another major final — a habit as steady as a metronomic kick-turn.
Having already made finals at two Olympics and a previous World Championships, she swam her heat in 2:25.10, then shaved more than a second off in the semis, finishing in 2:23.81 to qualify seventh fastest for Friday’s final.
Like a dolphin navigating the undercurrents of elite competition, Corbett faces daunting rivals — Russia’s world record-holder Evgeniia Chikunova and Olympic champion Kate Douglass — but she remains part of the pod with purpose and pedigree.
Elsewhere, not all SA swimmers found the slipstream. Rebecca Meder, on her 23rd birthday, was dragged down by a stomach bug that has been haunting the meet like a hidden undertow. Her 2:28.40 placed her 24th in the 200m breaststroke — a far cry from her 2:23.61 national title-winning time that would have seen her through to the final. Timing, as ever, is everything in the pool.
Erin Gallagher, too, struggled to catch the current in her 100m freestyle heat, finishing 27th in 55.01 seconds. The women’s 4x200m freestyle relay team — Aimee Canny, Georgia Nel, Hannah Robertson, and Catherine van Rensburg — clocked 8:13.06, good enough for 10th, but just outside the final bubble.
Still, Friday holds the promise of fresh splash and fight. Gallagher returns in the 50m butterfly, Van Rensburg faces the oceanic challenge of the 800m freestyle, and all eyes will be on Coetzé and Corbett, standing at the blocks once again — eyes locked on the wall, hearts swimming ahead of the gun.
In the race against the clock and against self, they have shown what it means to swim not just with muscle, but with memory, instinct, and ambition — like fish chasing fire through water.
