By Braden Keith on SwimSwam
World Aquatics World Cup #2 – Tashkent
October 8-10, 2026 Tashkent, Uzbekistan SCM (25 meters) Meet Central Results Psych Sheets How To Watch Recaps Prelims: Day 1 | Day 2 Finals: Day 1 | Day 2South African Pieter Coetze has broken the World Record in the 50 meter backstroke. The 22-year-old swam 22.09 in Friday’s event final in Tashkent, which broke the old World Record of 22.11 set by Russia’s Kliment Kolesnikov in 2022.
He is the only current African to hold a World Record.
The swim also broke the World Cup Record that was set last week in Baku by another Russian, Egor Kornev, in 22.23. Kornev finished 2nd on Friday in 22.29.
Coetze’s previous best and South African and African Records stood at 22.51 from last week’s stop in Baku, meaning that he dropped almost half-a-second in about six days. He still has the 100 back to swim on Saturday, where he swam 49.11 last week and the World Record is 48.16.
Coetze was not out fastest in this race – he was 10.92 to the feet before roaring past Kornev (10.84) on the back half. Coetze split 11.15 en route to a tie-for-2nd at last week’s meet.
Kolesnikov was 10.85 in his World Record swim in 2022.
Finish Order
Pieter Coetze (RSA), 22.09 WR, WC Egor Kornev (RUS), 22.29 Pavel Samusenko (RUS), 22.35In 2022, at 18, Coetze was the World Junior Champion in the 200 backstroke. He also won silvers in the 50 and 100 backstrokes at that meet.
A true three-distance backstroker, since then he has swept gold in the backstrokes at the 2026 Commonwealth Games, and at the 2025 World Championships he won gold in the 100 and silvers in the 50 and 200.
Coetze is expected to be the main rival to Hungarian Hubert Kos in the men’s backstroke events at the 2028 Olympic Games.
This is Coetze’s first World Record.
This was the first World Aquatics-recognized World Record set in Uzbekistan, but it is not the first World Record connected to Tashkent. Sergei Zabolotnov set the World Record in the 200 meter backstroke at the 1984 Friendship Games. He was born in Tashkent when it was part of the USSR.
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