World University Games, Day 3 Finals: Pieter Coetze Becomes Eighth Man Ever Under 52 in 100 Backstroke; United States Wins Four Golds
The first three days of the World University Games have seen Pieter Coetze rocket into star status. After clocking 47.88 leading off his country’s 400 freestyle relay Thursday, he dropped his best time and African record by four tenths in Friday’s 100 backstroke semifinals. Now, Coetze has secured gold in his signature event while becoming the eighth-fastest man in history in the event.
Coetze flipped with a slight lead over American Will Modglin at the halfway point, his mark of 25.19 only five hundredths outside world-record pace, and then he accelerated down the stretch with a 26.80 length. His final time was 51.99, the fastest time in the world this year and quicker than the 52.00 posted by Thomas Ceccon to win Olympic gold in the event in Paris.
He has knocked almost six tenths off his pre-meet best time (52.58) and more than that from the existing FISU Games record, the 52.60 clocked by Ryosuke Irie in 2009. Coetze now becomes a serious gold-medal favorite in the event heading into the World Championships.
Meanwhile, a pair of Americans joined Coetze on the podium with breakthrough swims of their own. Modglin earned silver in 52.54, two tenths quicker than his previous best time from the semifinals, while Daniel Diehl secured bronze in 52.94. No American man had broken 53 entering the year, and now both swimmers are ahead of the 53.00 that Tommy Janton used to win the event at U.S. Nationals. The two rank ninth and 13th in the world this year, respectively.
Saturday’s finals session also included the medal rounds of the women’s 100 freestyle, women’s 50 breaststroke, men’s 200 freestyle, women’s 800 freestyle, men’s 200 IM and mixed 400 medley relay, as well as semifinals in the women’s 100 backstroke, men’s 200 butterfly and men’s 200 breaststroke. The United States put together another impressive session, winning four gold medals and securing nine podium finishes.
Women’s 100 Freestyle Final
China’s Ai Yanhan snuck into an outside lane for the women’s 100 freestyle semifinals, and in the final, she was off the pace of the leaders at the halfway point, but her blazing closing split of 27.68 was enough to pull off gold. Ai had recorded a split of 53.35 on her country’s silver-medal-winning 400 free relay Thursday, and she backed that up with a time of 54.00 for the top spot here.
As Ai pulled away from the field, a four-swimmer battle emerged for silver. Coming out ahead of the pack was France’s Lison Nowaczyk, who clocked 54.23, while American Maxine Parker took bronze in 54.30, just two hundredths ahead of South Africa’s Olivia Nel (54.32). The United States’ Julia Dennis had led by two tenths at the halfway point, but she was caught down the stretch and ended up fifth, even though she was just 0.13 away from second place.
Women’s 100 Backstroke Semifinals
While Pieter Coetze has been exerting his dominance on men’s backstroke this week in Germany, Leah Shackley has done the same in the women’s events. She clocked 2:05.99 for gold in the 200 back Thursday, moving to No. 4 in the world as she twice shattered the Games record, and she has taken down another FISU mark in the 100 back semis as she clocked 58.97 in the second heat. Shackley is ranked fifth in the world this year at 58.53.
The record Shackley broke was just one heat old as Kennedy Noble, already the silver medalist in the 200 back behind Shackley, posted a time of 59.19 in the first heat. Noble broke the previous Games mark of 59.29 set by Katharine Berkoff in 2019. Interestingly, all three of those swimmers represent or previously represented NC State in collegiate competition, and all train together with the Wolfpack program. Another member of that group is Daniel Diehl, the bronze medalist Saturday in the men’s 100 back.
The rest of the field was well behind the pace of the two Americans, with Portugal’s Camila Rodrigues Rebelo taking third in 1:00.72. Just behind was Korea’s Eunji Lee (1:00.73), with South Africa’s Michaela De Villiers (1:00.81), Italy’s Federica Toma (1:00.87), Canada’s Ashley McMillan (1:00.89) and Japan’s Aimi Nagaoka (1:01.08) also qualifying.
Men’s 200 Butterfly Semifinals
Taiwan’s Wang Kuan-hung and the United States’ Mason Laur were the only two swimmers to record times under 1:56 in the semifinal round of the 200 fly. A balanced swim out of the second semifinal heat helped Wang improve from seventh place after prelims to first here, his final time 1:55.65. Laur had previously beaten the first semifinal heat by a half-second with a time of 1:55.77.
Poland’s Adrian Jaskiewicz placed third in 1:56.33, with Canada’s Benjamin Loewen (1:56.71) and Italy’s Claudio Faraci (1:56.97) also posting times in the 1:56-range. Japan’s Keigo Fukada placed sixth (1:57.43) while there was a tie for seventh between Canadian Patrick Hussey and American Jack Dahlgren in 1:57.54.
Women’s 50 Breaststroke Final
When Emma Weber made her senior international debut at the Paris Olympics, she earned a gold medal by virtue of her prelims leg on the 400 medley relay, but she was unable to advance out of prelims in her lone individual event, the 100 breast. Now, Weber is an individual champion after she topped South Africa’s Lara Van Niekerk by seven hundredths in the WUGs final of the 50 breast.
Weber came in at 30.61, slower than her 30.53 from the semifinals and her best time of 30.43 from U.S. Nationals but good enough in the moment. Van Niekerk, a medalist in this event at both the long course and short course World Championships in 2022, came in second at 30.68 while Poland’s Barbara Mazurkiewicz secured bronze in 30.76. Only one other swimmer, South Africa’s Simone Moll, broke 30 seconds (30.98).
Men’s 200 Freestyle Final
He sat outside medal position at the final turn, but Jake Mitchell had one final surge remaining, and it propelled him to gold. Mitchell split 27.03 for the last length, a half-second faster than anyone else in the field, and he reached the wall in 1:46.22.
Mitchell was a Tokyo Olympian in the 400 free, winning a special time trial at the U.S. Olympic Trials to secure his place on the team, and he helped the Americans to silver in the 800 free relay at the 2023 World Championships. He now ranks among the top-25 swimmers in the world in the 200 free, although only ninth among Americans because of the country’s supreme depth in the event.
Neutral athlete Nikolai Kolesnikov earned silver in 1:46.77, marking his second trip to the podium after opening the meet with gold in the 400 free. The Americans got another medal here, their sixth of the session, as Baylor Nelson took bronze in 1:46.81, holding off fast-finishing Italian Giovanni Caserta (1:46.90). Brazil’s Kaique Alves had the lead almost the entire race, but he faded on the way home to end up fifth (1:46.92).
Men’s 200 Breaststroke Semifinals
Italy’s Alessandro Fusco went wire-to-wire in the first semifinal heat, jumping up from eighth place in prelims to the top spot entering the final. He was the only swimmer in the field under 1:02 in the opening 100 meters, and he was the only man to break 2:10 for the entire race, coming in at 2:09.89.
The second semifinal heat went to American Ben Delmar, the bronze-medal winner in the 100 breast Friday, with a time of 2:10.26. Hong Kong’s Mak Sai Ting placed third in 2:10.61, followed by 100 breast silver medalist Dawid Wiekiera of Poland (2:11.15). Also making the final were Japan’s Riku Yamaguchi (2:11.59), the United States’ Josh Bey (2:11.63), Korea’s Lee Saghoon (2:11.93) and the Netherlands Ivo Kroes (2:11.93).
Women’s 800 Freestyle Final
American Mila Nikanorov got off to a slow start in the race, but she quickly made up the deficit and moved into second place behind Portugal’s Francisca Soares Martins. By the halfway point, Nikanorov was in the lead, and she continued to expand the advantage to more than three seconds. She finished in 8:27.61, securing gold for the U.S. for the third consecutive final and cutting five seconds from the mark she swam at U.S. Nationals last month.
Soares Martins took silver in 8:30.76, but she had to hold off a surging Ruka Takezawa on the back half. Takezawa, representing Japan, moved into second place for 300 meters, but Soares Martins finished in 30.30 to get to the wall two tenths ahead of Tazekawa’s 8:30.95. Kate Hurst of the United States was the next finisher in 8:32.67.
Men’s 200 IM Final
Although Owen McDonald had a clear lead for the majority of this final, Japan’s Takumi Mori got close enough on the breaststroke to put himself in position for a sizzling finish. Mori was in fourth place at the halfway point, his split of 55.85 two seconds back of McDonald, but he followed that with a 33.56 breaststroke leg to move into second place. From there, Mori stormed to the front of the field with a 27.83 freestyle split, and it was enough for gold in Games-record time.
Mori touched in 1:57.24, taking down the Games record of 1:57.35 set by former Japanese star Kosuke Hagino in 2017, one year after Hagino won Olympic gold in the 400 IM. Also coming through on the freestyle leg was American Mitchell Schott, who moved up to finish second in 1:58.25. Japan earned a second medal with Yuta Watanabe claiming bronze in 1:58.54 while McDonald faded to fourth (1:58.68).
Mixed 400 Medley Relay Final
To complete another impressive session for the United States, the team of Will Modglin, Ben Delmar, Leah Shackley and Maxine Parker dominated the mixed 400 medley relay. Modglin set the pace, his 52.83 backstroke split a bit slower than his mark from the individual event earlier in the session (52.54) but enough to put his team 1.41 seconds ahead. Delmar followed with a 1:00.08 breaststroke split, and Shackley went 57.93 on butterfly.
Poland went with a male swimmer on butterfly, and Adrian Jaskiewicz massively cut into Shackley’s advantage, but Parker restored order with her 53.56 anchor split. The Americans finished in 3:44.40, just off the Games record of 3:44.03 set by China two years ago. Each swimmer had already earned an individual medal, with Modglin, Delmar and Parker all placing top-three in the 100-meter distance for their respective stroke while Shackley won the 200 back. The Americans remained undefeated in relays after sweeping the women’s and men’s 400 free relays on night one.
Poland came in second with Adela Piskorska, Dawid Wiekiera, Jaskiewicz and Julia Maik combining for a time of 3:47.14. Wiekiera had just competed in the 200 breast semifinals, but he still posted the fastest breaststroke split here at 59.57. South Africa’s team of Ruard Van Renen, Simone Moll, Guy Brooks and Olivia Nel took bronze in 3:48.34, reaching the podium despite leaving backstroke star Pieter Coetze off this team. Of course, even another sub-52 100 back on the leadoff leg would not have been enough to catch the dominant Americans.
Italy just missed out on the podium, coming in fourth at 3:48.65, with Japan placing fifth (3:49.69).
