Coetzee pools some silver

STRIKING another blow for women’s sport, Duné Coetzee became the first South African female to win a medal in the pool at the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires.

Coetzee won the women’s 200m butterfly silver medal at the quadrennial showpiece after posting a new personal best time of two minutes, 11.71 seconds, which is also a new South African age-group record.

“It has been one of my lifelong dreams to become a Youth Olympic champion so definitely dreamt about this moment,” Coetzee said.

“I actually only remember the moments after the race and when I received my medal and seeing my parents.

“Everything was amazing and I can’t actually explain the feeling.”

Coetzee’s victory came a day after Amber Schlebusch won the country’s first triathlon gold medal on Sunday.

The 16-year-old Coetzee, who was the youngest member of the South African team at the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia, made up for a sluggish start to touch first at the halfway mark.

Her hold on the gold medal was short-lived with Hungary’s Bianca Berercz gaining on her stroke for stroke to hit the wall first in a time of 2:10.37.

Coetzee touched well ahead of Australia’s Michaela Ryan, who rounded off the podium with a time of 2:13.12.

The Afrikaans Hoër Meisieskool learner chopped a massive 0.67sec off the previous personal best of 2:12.38 she posted at the Commonwealth Games.

The Tuks swimmer’s coach Linda de Jager said she was pleasantly surprised by Coetzee’s medal.

| Ockert de Villiers