South Africa claimed two famous wins on Friday night in Uzbekistan as Coetze broke his first career World Record.
After coming close to the 100m Backstroke record in long course at the Commonwealth Games, South Africa's Pieter Coetze finally broke through for his first career World Record on Friday in Tashkent as he swam 22.09 in the 50m Backstroke. The time eclipses Kliment Kolesnikov's 22.11 from 2022 and lowers his own best time that he swam last week at 22.51.
"Seeing that time on the board, it didn't even click that it was a World Record," Coetze said. "And then, like, a second later, I was like...'the World Record was 22.1.' So... not many words to describe that. It's crazy."
Coetze out-raced a stacked field that included Russians Egor Kornev and Pavel Samusenko as well as World Record holder Kolesnikov. Kornev was actually ahead of World Record pace at the 25m mark, but mis-timed his finish and finished second at 22.29 while Samusenko was third at 22.35. Kolesnikov was hardly a factor and finished sixth at 22.88.
Coetze, age 22, is having a career year. After winning the 100m Backstroke World title in 2025, he gave the World Record a scare at the Commonwealth Games earlier this summer, swimming 51.7 twice in Glasgow. Now he officially has 'World Record holder' attached to his name, which will keep a target on his back for next week in Kazakhstan.
"I don't think it changes much," Coetze said. "My mindset normally stays the same, no matter what the race is, because, you know, at this level everyone is always close. I mean, the world-record holder was there — and look how close it was. So, no, you can never get too comfortable. I'll just keep doing the same."
Coetze's win was followed by fellow South African Michael Houlie winning the 50m Breaststroke final at 25.67. That swim puts Houlie 16th all-time, all while battling lower back pain and food poisoning.
"I think, in spite of all of that, I've been able to overcome it and swim the way I swam today," Houlie said. "That takes courage, and I'm just... I'm grateful. Grateful to be here."
Coetze's swim is also the first official World Record by itself on this Silk Road Tour. Last week, Russia's Kornev tied the 100m Freestyle World Record, but didn't take it down completely.
McEvoy and Kornev continue their close contests
In tonight's 100m Freestyle final, there was anticipation over whether Kornev could claim the World Record for himself. The race did not play out in the same way this week however with Kornev citing a nagging back injury that started last week.
Australia's Cameron McEvoy took it to him on the first 50m. McEvoy, fresh off a 20.13 in the 50m yesterday, turned at 21.42 to Kornev's 21.68, and held the lead at the 75m turn.
Kornev fought for all he was worth and hit the pad at the exact same time as McEvoy, each hitting the wall at 45.24. McEvoy improved on his lifetime best to sit 11th all-time while Kornev claimed his second win in a row.
Even despite the back pain, McEvoy believes the best is yet to come for his rival.
"I think he's going to go insanely fast in two months' time," McEvoy said of Kornev. "This is just a warm-up for Egor. So I'm happy I can fight with him and be a good foe right now, but I believe that, in two months' time, he's going to drop something pretty special."
Kornev leads the overall standings with 113.7 points with one day left of this stop in Uzbekistan ahead of Coetze (108) and American Carson Foster (106.9).
Foster was second in two events today, behind fellow American Shaine Casas in the 200m IM and Belgium's Lucas Henveaux in the 800m Freestyle.
Casas took down a tight field in that 200m IM to win at 1:51.81 while Foster (1:52.21) held on to second.
"That race is kind of like my baby," Casas said. "I made the Olympic team and I won Worlds in it. I'm second all-time. So I think that's the one I can lean on the most when things are going a little bit crazy. And right now, I would say things are a little chaotic for me personally, you know, with moves and all that stuff. But I'm happy to get a win."
Casas most recently left his training base at the University of Texas as he continues to train at age 26.
Henveaux swam the 800m Freestyle earlier in the day at 7:37.83, winning over Foster (7:40.38) and Ilia Sibirtsev (7:40.77) representing host nation Uzbekistan. It's the first medal at this year's World Cup for a host nation and a big moment for Sibirtsev, who had only been training for two months because of a previous blood clot.
"I was just hoping to bring a medal just to show the crowd swimming, for us, does exist," Sibirtsev said. "And just to show young generations that, hey, there's swimming over there, not only soccer, you know, [there are] other sports, so come swim."
Steenbergen consolidates atop women's rankings
The women's overall World Cup standings are currently led by Marrit Steenbergen of the Netherlands, who won her third race of the weekend on Friday with a 55.32 in the 100m Backstroke. It was not a best time for her but enough to get her to 116.3 total points.
"It was a good race," Steenbergen said. "I tried to go out a bit faster than last week; I also died a bit more. So I'm trying to see if I can get the pace right next week and see what I can do then.
"I think my turns were good. I think that's really how I swim fast in short course — it's the underwaters. So, yeah, I'm trying to use that strength."
Steenbergen holds a sizable points lead over Belgium's Roos Vanotterdijk (106.9 points), who collected her first win in Tashkent on Friday after two silvers yesterday with a win in the 50m Butterfly at 24.75 for a new national record.
"It was a great race," Vanotterdijk said, who moved to tied for 21st all-time with her swim. "I went in with the attitude of really wanting to go fast — to open as fast as I could and then just come home with it. And I felt like I nailed it pretty well."
Vanotterdijk is just narrowly ahead of China's Yu Yiting in the overall standings as Yu is third at 106.2 points. Yu won the 400m IM at 4:27.09 tonight, which is off her 4:24 from last week. However, her best event, the 200m IM, is tomorrow.
Siobhan Haughey of Hong Kong, China won her second straight 200m Freestyle at the World Cup, swimming 1:51.02 on Friday, which was 0.06 faster than last week. Haughey had been out of the water this week to prioritize recovery and is still unbeatable in this event.
"I think I even surprised myself," Haughey said. "I mean, I swam maybe 100 metres two days ago, and then yesterday I did about 1000m, just to see how I was feeling. So I definitely was not expecting that time. But, yeah, I think it's just really important for me to remember that sometimes resting gets you further.
"I think swimmers always think about the hard work — working hard — but we kind of forget about the resting part."
Ireland's Mona Mc Sharry held on to win the 100m Breaststroke at 1:04.25 for her second straight win on the tour in the event. China's Chen Juner also collected a win in the 200m Butterfly at 1:49.98, just off his national record of 1:49.37 from last week.
The World Aquatics Swimming World Cup 2026 will continue tomorrow with Day 3 from Tashkent with the heats starting at 10:00 local time and the finals following at 18:00.
Schedule
Morning heats begin at 10:00 local time across all three days of competition.
Finals begin at 18:00 on all three days.
The full schedule can be found here
Where to watch
Racing will be shown live and on demand through World Aquatics broadcast partners around the world, and on the World Aquatics Recast channel in other markets.
Full details are available here.
Photo credit: Kamilla Khasanova / Uzbekistan Aquatics / World Aquatics