Brave Pieter Coetze breaks African record in Paris again

Coetze set a new African record by touching the wall in 52.58 seconds – surpassing his earlier record of 52.63 set in the semi-finals on Sunday night. 

Achieving a personal best and reaching the final is a significant accomplishment for the 20-year-old, who expressed pride in his performance and is optimistic about his prospects for future Olympic Games.

"It was so close. I'm just happy with the [personal best] so I can't complain, and I knew it was going to be a tough race, so I'm just grateful to God for the opportunity to even be here," reacted Coetze.

"For me to be able to swim a personal best with all this outside noise that we have here, it's a good sign for me for the future, and I'm just very happy and content with that." 

The young swimmer narrowly missed the podium by just 0.19 seconds and would have cherished winning even a bronze medal.

"Even though it would have been nice to have a medal, there was nothing I can complain about. I'll have to watch the video again to see how close it was, but time-wise it seems pretty close," he added.

"But ja, I mean, fifth in the world a few years ago, I wouldn't have believed you if you told me that I would do that, so I'm very grateful."

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