Pieter Coetze happy with five National Championships titles in Gqeberha

Coetze won gold in the 50m and 100m freestyle, while also coming first and qualified for the Commonwealth Games in the 50m, 100m, and 200m backstroke.  

He says he was especially happy given his limited time in the pool since the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore last year. 

"I'm very happy, it's been a weird time because I basically took the whole month of December out of the pool and I started back again in January," Coetze revealed.

"The last time I had raced before China was at Worlds last year, so it was about eight months that I didn't race at all, and I was super chuffed with how it went [in Singapore] because I was pretty scared that I would be very rusty and not have my skills on point.

"But it was okay and this is now my second meet in about nine months, so I think it's a great base and I've got about two months now to go back to work and make sure I put in a good performance at Commonwealth."

The 21-year-old’s final title at the championships came in the 200m backstroke, taking it in 01:55.26 seconds, and he revealed he wasn’t always a fan of the event but is now getting used to the four laps. 

"At first, I didn't like the 200, it was too hard for me but it's something I'm getting used to now and it's very challenging because there are so many different ways you can swim it.

"And I've just come to the conclusion that I need to take it on faster, so I'm still getting used to that now," he concluded.