{"id":619242,"date":"2025-07-31T04:20:01","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T11:20:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=619242"},"modified":"2025-07-31T05:50:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T12:50:13","slug":"world-championships-day-five-semifinals-pieter-coetze-smashes-african-record-to-lead-200-backstroke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/world-championships-day-five-semifinals-pieter-coetze-smashes-african-record-to-lead-200-backstroke\/","title":{"rendered":"World Championships, Day Five Semifinals: Pieter Coetze Smashes African Record to Lead 200 Backstroke"},"content":{"rendered":"

World Championships, Day Five Semifinals: Pieter Coetze Smashes African Record to Lead 200 Backstroke<\/strong><\/p>\n

One night after capturing her second gold medal in the 200-meter freestyle, Australian Mollie O’Callaghan<\/strong> 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.<\/p>\n

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<\/strong> is the favorite in the 200 back, having won Olympic gold in the event last summer in Paris, but South Africa’s Pieter Coetze<\/strong> stole the show with an African record and world-leading performance.<\/p>\n

Here is how the Night Five semifinals unfolded:<\/p>\n