Singapore swimmer Joseph Schooling has made history as the fastest Asian to glide his way to a record time of 50.83sec in the 100m butterfly semi-finals event at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
This means that the 21-year-old, whose timing is also the world’s best so far this year, is through to finals on Friday night in Brazil (9.12am Singapore time on Saturday) the first ever Singaporean to do so.
His record time in the second 100m butterfly semi-finals was the fastest among the top eight swimmers who made the finals.
His latest timing is also a new national record for Schooling, whose previous personal best was 50.96sec, which he clocked at the world championships last year. He walked away with the bronze medal at the event.
Fellow Singapore teammate Quah Zheng Wen earlier missed out on the 100m butterfly final after finishing with a time of 52.26sec, coming in 8th in his semi-final event.
The Straits Times, The New Paper, Zaobao, SINGSOC, Singapore Sailing Federation
sujint@sph.com.sg
