Singapore swimmers Joseph Schooling and Quah Zheng Wen both qualified for the 100m butterfly semi-finals at the Rio Olympics early on Friday (Aug 12).
Schooling, 21, made an impressive finish in the heats by coming in first with a time of 51.41s, ahead of American world record-holder Michael Phelps, who came in fourth.
Quah, 19, clocked a personal best timing of 52.08s, coming in 16th.
This is the second time in his career that Schooling has beaten Phelps, and the first time that Singapore will have two swimmers qualify for the same semi-final at an Olympic event.
“It feels like a morning swim. Relaxed, easy,” Schooling told reporters.
Phelps admitted he had messed up, even if the time was acceptable, because he now faced being in the opening semi, Reuters reported.
His 200m Individual Medley event is scheduled for 11pm local time, with the butterfly semi-final starting at 11.34pm.
An odd finish number would have put him in the later group for the butterfly.
“I like to have those extra seven or eight minutes in between,” said the American. “It’s another 300 (metres) I could do in the warm-down pool. “Obviously in the first swim I needed to take care of business and then whatever I can do in the second one just to make it through is what I’ll do tonight.”
The 100m fly semis will start at 10.34am Friday Singapore time.
AFP, Reuters, The Straits Times
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candicec@sph.com.sg
