Pieter Coetze was a head and shoulders up on the field breaking into stroke right on the 15m marker on his way to turning 0.46sec inside World-record pace en route to defending the 100m backstroke crown in a sizzling African record 51.77.

It was a Games record inside the 51.98 he clocked leading the South African mixed medley relay to silver last night but out in wider world waters, it was also the second fastest ever, just 0.17sec shy of Italian Thomas Ceccon's global high bar from 2022.

Coetze would reduce that to a 0.11sec gap by the end of the meet: he clocked 51.71 leading South Africa off on its way to bronze in the curtain-closing men's medley relay.

Coetze, the South African World champion of Singapore 2025, led Ollie Morgan, of England, and the champion's own teammate Ruard van Renen, who completed the podium in respective times of 52.66 and 53.31:

Coetzee's African record had stood at 51.85 since his win in Singapore last year. In Birmingham in 2022, Coetze became the first South African to win any backstroke title at the Commonwealth (and before that more) Games back to 1930.

Now he's the first to retain a backstroke titles, joining Canadian Mark Tewksbury, the 1992 Olympic champion who won the n1986 and 1990 Commonwealth titles, and Liam Tancock, of England, the Commonwealth champion in 2006 and 2010 who proved himself before and after the shiny suits saga that brought him a world title and record over 50m.

Tancock was the British record holder between the last season of the bodysuit boost in 2009 and 2025, when Ollie Morgan, a latecomer to the elite end of the sport who did train more than a couple to a few times a week no until he was 18, claimed the national standard in 52.12 at nationals championships in spring.

More later...