South Africa has won nine medals at the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, with Pieter Coetze leading the charge after claiming his second gold medal in the pool on Sunday night.
According to the Team South Africa website, Coetze’s impressive campaign gathered even more momentum when he added the 200m backstroke gold to his 50m backstroke title at the Tollcross International Swimming Centre.
With two gold medals already in the bag, the 22-year-old is now the favourite to complete a golden treble in the 100m backstroke.
Coetze reached the halfway mark of the 200m backstroke in 54.47 seconds, under world-record pace, before producing a gutsy second half to win in a Games-record time of 1:54.22.
He finished 2.22 seconds ahead of silver medallist Oliver Morgan of England.
Coetze’s gold was one of three medals won by Team SA on the night, taking the country’s overall medal tally to nine.
Aimee Canny stormed to silver in the women’s 100m breaststroke in 1:06.19, while Kaylene Corbett (1:07.61) and Rebecca Meder (1:07.68) finished sixth and seventh, respectively.
Olivia Nel fought back tears after claiming bronze from lane two in the women’s 100m backstroke in 1:00.09.
“I’m so excited, I feel quite emotional. That race was challenging for me, but I am so proud of myself; it feels good. My goal was to go out with enough to come back with. I paced things pretty well going out and had enough to speed up at the end,” Nel said. -SAnews.gov.za
