World Championships, Day Five Semifinals: Pieter Coetze Smashes African Record to Lead 200 Backstroke
One night after capturing her second gold medal in the 200-meter freestyle, Australian Mollie O’Callaghan is now chasing her third world title in the 100 freestyle. That event was one of four semifinals contested on Thursday at the World Championships in Singapore. O’Callaghan claimed her first world championship in the 100 freestyle in 2022, then repeated at the 2023 Worlds in Fukuoka.
Semifinals in the women’s 200 breaststroke and men’s 200 breaststroke were also part of the Night Five session, along with the semifinal of the men’s 200 backstroke. Hungarian Hubert Kos is the favorite in the 200 back, having won Olympic gold in the event last summer in Paris, but South Africa’s Pieter Coetze stole the show with an African record and world-leading performance.
Here is how the Night Five semifinals unfolded:
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Women’s 100 Freestyle
Chasing a third world title in the 100 freestyle, following gold medals in 2022 and 2023, Australia’s Mollie O’Callaghan comfortably set herself up for that pursuit in the semifinals. Using her trademark back-half surge, O’Callaghan recorded a time of 52.82 to grab the second seed for the final. Only the Netherlands’ Marrit Steenbergen was faster, as she prevailed in the first semifinal in 52.81. O’Callaghan has already won gold medals this week in the 400 freestyle relay and 200 freestyle, and a third championship is now within reach.
Qualifying as the No. 3 seed for the final, Russia’s Daria Klepikova went 53.14, which placed her just ahead of American Torri Huske, who has been struggling with illness throughout the competition. Huske advanced in 53.21, followed by China’s Cheng Yujie in 53.34. Huske put together a gutsy semifinal, going out in 25.23 and holding on down the stretch to ensure a place in the final.
Women’s 200 Breaststroke
A duel between world-record holder Evgeniia Chikunova and Olympic champion Kate Douglass is set, as the Russian and American athletes qualified first and second for the final of the 200 breaststroke. Douglass won the first semifinal in 2:20.96 and was followed by Chikunova claiming victory in the second semifinal, behind a mark of 2:20.65. It’s difficult to see anyone but Chikunova or Douglass not earning gold.
Lithuania’s Kotryna Teterevkova was third-fastest in the semifinals, going 2:22.98, and Great Britain’s Angharad Evans moved on in the No. 4 position with a time of 2:23.32. The 200 breaststroke has been a bounce-back event for Evans, who failed to advance out of the prelims of the 100 breaststroke, where she entered the meet as the top seed.
The United States’ Alex Walsh was 12th in the semifinals, going 2:25.16.
Men’s 200 Breaststroke
It has been more than eight years since Ippei Watanabe became the first man to break 2:07 in the 200 breaststroke. Six years have passed since Watanabe won his second and final World Championships medal. But the resurgent 28-year-old now enters the World Championships final as the top seed thanks to his strong time of 2:08.01 in the semifinal round. Watanabe was three tenths faster than the winner of the second semifinal, American AJ Pouch. Swimming at his first long course Worlds after narrowly missing last year’s Olympic team, Pouch clocked 2:08.34 here.
The only returning medalist from the Olympics, the Netherlands’ Caspar Corbeau, took third in 2:08.44, followed by a second Japanese swimmer, Yamato Fukasawa (2:08.45) and the short course world champion, Spain’s Carles Coll Marti (2:08.49). Two neutral swimmers, Aleksandr Zhigalov and Kirill Prigoda made it in, while China’s Qin Haiyang barely snuck in with his 2:09.32 getting eighth. Qin is the world-record holder and won the 2023 world title in the event.
China’s Dong Zhihao, the world champion in February 2024, fell to 11th in 2:11.77. Olympic champion Leon Marchand skipped the event to concentrate on the medley events while Australia’s Zac Stubblety-Cook was forced to withdraw from the meet with injury.
Men’s 200 Backstroke
During an astounding run of backstroke success in the past several weeks, Pieter Coetze had yet to show off his capabilities in the 200 back. He had achieved gold medals at the World University Games in the 50 and 100-meter races before a World Championships upset win int he 100 back, and now he has clocked 1:54.22 to lead the way into the 200 back final. Coetze clocked 1:54.22 in the first semifinal, shattering his previous African record of 1:55.60 set last year and becoming the world’s top performer for 2025.
Three additional swimmers went sub-1:55 in the second semifinal heat: France’s Yohann Ndoye-Brouard swam an enormous big best time of 1:54.47, followed by Hungary’s Hubert Kos (1:54.64) and Switzerland’s Roman Mityukov (1:54.83). Kos was the Olympic champion last year, and he returned to the Worlds final following his bronze in the 200 IM earlier in the session while Mityukov won bronze in Paris.
Luke Greenbank returned to the Worlds final with his eighth-place time of 1:55.64, while the results for the Americans were disappointing amid the stomach illness that has crushed the team all week. Keaton Jones, the third-fastest swimmer in the world entering the meet, ended up 12th in 1:56.20, while pre-meet world leader Jack Aikins did not advance out of prelims.
