Swimmers feed off their own success to end with 22 medals

When the lights came on, the stars came out inside the Tollcross International Swimming Centre. Led by Pieter Coetze, who is maturing into a global superstar in front of our eyes, Team SA’s swimmers signed off from their campaign at the Commonwealth Games in spectacular fashion when they added another six medals to their collection. That took their Games haul to 22. Job done and then some.

Team SA’s swimmers were involved in seven finals on the night and left with six medals. Coetze, the outstanding swimmer of these Glasgow Games, went into the 100m backstroke final as the red-hot favourite, Para swimmer Christian Sadie also looked nailed-on for gold in pre-race inspection, while Chad le Clos went in search of a historic 21st Games career medal, in the 4x100m medley.

If those three were all 10 out of 10 “medal probables”, then Kaylene Corbett, one of three Team SA swimmers in the 200m breaststroke, was a 9 out of 10, as was Ruard van Renen in the men’s 100m backstroke. That quickly added up to the handful of medals projected to five, but there was still hope with a teammate finding the podium on the night. Then there were the two relays, providing two glorious medal opportunities.

Coetze was the first to set the tone, bulldozing his way to gold in the evening’s opening event, the 100m backstroke, where he combined speed and power to complete a rare hat-trick of backstroke gold medals (50m, 100m, 200m). Throw in three relay medals and he goes home with a haul of six. This time he slashed his lifetime best below 52 seconds for the first time, touching in 51.77. The Commonwealth conquered, the world is next, the global mark of Thomas Ceccon (51.60) next in sight.

“I’m just relieved, I think, mostly,” Coetze said. “I’m very proud of myself and happy to get the job done. It was something I was focused on and believed I could do, so to pull it off is a great feeling.”

What followed was a night that will live long in the memory. Coetze’s leading leg in the relay was 51.71sec, another Games record, even quicker than he’d gone in winning individual gold.

Before the Men’s 100m backstroke there had been a general air of “will it be a Team SA 1-2 or a 1-3” such has been the dominance of Coetze at these Games. He had cleaned up in the 50m, setting a Games record in each race on the way to gold, won 200m gold with another Games record and posted a Games record 52.20 in the 100m semi-finals.

Van Renen has announced himself in Glasgow and was looking to add a 100m medal to the 50m bronze he secured. He had qualified in lane three and on times (53.41) was in the shake-up for silver and bronze.

Coetze arced his way into the water and he was gone. At the turn in 24.68, he had 0.55 over England’s Oliver Morgan, who has chased him all week. Van Renen was a further 0.45 back. That’s how it stayed, as Coetze opened his lead to 0.89 as they arrived at the finishing wall. Morgan held second and Van Renen held third. Coetze said, “I looked at the clock and saw it was 51-something. I couldn’t see exactly in the moment.” It was 51.77, just 0.16 outside the world record. He then lowered that to 51.71 in the 4x100m medley final for seven Games records in total. Coetze is still only 22.

In the Women’s 200m breaststroke Corbett was the most experienced of the trio of South Africans in the eight-swimmer field. South African women’s breaststroke swimming has been strong over the years with Penny Heyns, Tatjana Smith and Lara van Niekerk all becoming Commonwealth – and in the first two, Olympic – champions. Corbett has often had to stand in the shadows but she is now growing in confidence to take on the world. Joining her in the final was the 22-year-old US-based Aimee Canny and Rebecca Meder, a 23-year-old prodigious talent who is getting back to her best. Corbett had won the bronze in the 200m breaststroke in Birmingham and here went one better.

Fourth after the first 50m, she improved to third and sat in the bronze medal position through halfway. The 27-year-old then dug deep and improved into second behind Scotland’s Angharad Evans, who was being roared on by her home crowd. As much as she tried and closing the gap from 1:02 down the home straight to a 0:67 gap, Corbett was left to settle for silver. Behind her, Canny produced the fastest final 50m (38.42) but it wasn’t enough to get on the podium, while Meder came in eighth.

Caitlyn de Lange (22) and Jessica Thompson (19) represent the future of South African women’s freestyle sprinting in the Women’s 50m freestyle and they came in ranked fourth and fifth from the semi-finals, split by 0.10sec. The reality is that they would have to get past the three Australians, Meg Harris, Alex Perkins and Shayna Jack, if they were going to get onto the podium, despite the unpredictable nature of 50m sprints. The race unfolded as the neutrals had predicted, with the Aussies going 1-2-3, while De Lange finished fifth and Thompson sixth. Both were satisfied with their performances, and rightly so.

Calvyn Justus has made a successful comeback in the Men’s 50m butterfly after a serious back injury had left him unable to walk for a year. He represented Team SA at the 2016 Rio Olympics before the injury seemed to have forced a premature retirement. However, he has worked his way back and qualified for Glasgow at the National championships earlier this year. He reached the final of the 50m freestyle, where he finished fifth, and also fought his way through to the 50m ‘fly final. Like the 50m women’s freestylers, he had three Australians to his right in lanes three, four and five to get past. Yet again, the Australians put the hammer down and left no room on the podium for the opposition. Justus touched in seventh in 23.53, with Australia claiming another 1-2-3, led by Kyle Chalmers in 22.73.

Sadie came to Glasgow looking for that elusive medal on the big stage. He’d already collected four silvers and three bronzes, starting at with S7 50m freestyle silver at the 2017 World Championships in Mexico City and most recently two bronzes at the 2025 Worlds in Singapore. He’d been a finalist at the 2024 Paralympics and came to his third Commonwealth Games with a silver in 2018 and bronze in 2022.

In his heat he stormed to the wall in 28.45. A Games record and two seconds quicker than he timed in Birmingham and a second faster than Paris. At the age of 28 he arrived in Glasgow at the peak of his powers. His morning swim put him 0.99sec ahead of Singapore’s Wei Soong Toh and 3.05sec clear of third fastest Bruce Dee. Along with Coetze, he looked a banker for gold on the night. And he didn’t disappoint, going under the Games record again, in 28.06.

In the Women’s 4x100m medley relay there was a complete overhaul to the quartet who had earned Team SA qualification through the heats, but all of Jessica Thompson, Lara van Niekerk, Erin Gallagher and Georgia Nel would have earned a medal because they’d been involved. In came Olivia Nel, Canny, Gallagher and Meder. Nel handed over to Canny in fourth, who in turn handed over to Meder in fourth. She had a conversation with a higher power down the home straight and when she touched the wall in third, in an African record 3:58.58, her teammates scarcely believed that she’d got the bronze for them. It was that kind of night.

If ever there was a storybook ending, this is it. Le Clos waited until the final race of the 2026 Commonwealth Games to officially go where no one has been before. It all started on 4 October 2010 with 200m butterfly gold in Delhi. Nearly 16 full years later, five Games in total, history was written in Glasgow.

The 21st medal for South Africa’s iconic 34-year-old swimmer came in the men’s 4x100m medley relay, which brought the curtain down on the Games programme inside Glasgow’s Tollcross International Swimming Centre. In total Team SA leave with 22 medals from the pool, comprising six gold, seven silver and nine bronze,

Those 21 medals are more than any Commonwealth Games athletes, across all sports codes, has ever won.

Le Clos earned three, all in the relays, which first took his pre-Games tally past shooters Phil Adams and Mick Gault, then to join Australian swimmer Emma McKeon and then to go into a world on his own with 21.

The coaching think tank had pulled something of a “Rassie Bomb Squad” move between morning and evening ahead of the 4x100m medley final. There were three changes in personnel and one switch in stroke. Van Renen, who had led off in the morning, was switched to freestyle where he replaced Guy Brooks, while Michael Houlie came in for Chris Smith and Le Clos replaced Jarden Eaton.

“Tonight was emotional” he said after Wednesday’s medal ceremony. “But I think those first two (medals) were just a little bit more just because I had to get over the hump and tonight I just had to stay cool and hopefully bring it home.”

However he said that Tuesday night’s relay final – which he didn’t compete in – was probably the most emotional of the games. “The way the boys and girls swam, they swam their hearts out. They keep saying ‘legacy’, we are doing this for Chad before they walked down. It just means the world to me.”

His family were also there in Glasgow to support him. “I can’t describe the support over the years. This week has been special because my brother’s daughter was born on 1 October 2010 and she was here to watch me 16 years later. They’ve been there every step of the way, my parents, both my brothers and sister.”

“Looking back on the whole Commonwealth Games journey, from India through to now, I never thought I’d be standing here,” Le Clos said. “To stand alone in history is unbelievable. Four years ago, I needed one more medal, then Emma (McKeon) came past me and suddenly I needed three more. We just took it one day at a time.”

He now has seven golds, five silver, nine bronze medals.

2010 Delhi (5)

2 Gold (200m butterfly, 400m IM)

1 Silver (men’s 4x100m medley)

2 Bronze (men’s 4x100m, 4x200m freestyle)

2014 Glasgow (7)

2 Gold (100m, 200m butterfly)

1 Silver (men’s 4x100m freestyle)

4 Bronze (50m butterfly, 200m IM, men’s 4x200m freestyle, men’s 4x100m medley)

2018 Gold Coast (5)

3 Gold (50m, 100m, 200m butterfly)

1 Silver (100m freestyle)

1 Bronze (men’s 4x100m medley)

2022 Birmingham (1)

1 Silver (200m butterfly)

2026 Glasgow (3)

1 Silver (men’s 4x100m freestyle, mixed 4x100m medley)

2 Bronze (men’s 4x100m freestyle, men’s 4x100m medley)