S’pore’s Teong Tzen Wei breaks 50m fly Asian record at Short Course World C’ships, Latest Swimming News - The New Paper
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S’pore’s Teong Tzen Wei breaks 50m fly Asian record at Short Course World C’ships

National swimmer Teong Tzen Wei’s campaign at the Fina 2022 World Swimming Championships (25m) got off to a flying start as he set an Asian record in the men’s 50m butterfly when he touched the wall in 22.01 seconds.

His timing on Tuesday at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre eclipsed the previous record of 22.19sec, which Takeshi Kawamoto had set at the Japan National Championships (25m) two years ago.

It was also enough for him to top the heats ahead of Hungary’s world record holder Szebasztian Szabo (22.07sec) and Germany’s Marius Kusch (22.19) and qualify for Tuesday’s semi-finals.

Teong, 25, has been in stunning form in 2022. At the Hanoi SEA Games in May, he became the first South-east Asian to clock a sub-22 second time in the 50m freestyle.

A month later, he became just the third male Singaporean swimmer to qualify for a final at the World Championships.

He then clinched a silver medal in the 50m fly at the Commonwealth Games in July. Only Joseph Schooling and Toh Wei Soong have finished on the podium for swimming at the Games.

In Melbourne on Tuesday, Letitia Sim set a Singapore record in the women’s 200m medley with her time of 2min 09.82sec eclipsing Quah Jing Wen’s old mark of 2:12.58 set at the Singapore National Swimming Championships (Short Course Meters) in 2021. She finished 18th in the heats.

The Republic’s other swimmer at the meet, Maximillian Ang placed 28th in the men’s 200m medley heats after clocking 1:59.11.

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