Worlds: Schooling makes 100m fly semi-finals, but Quah misses out again
Singapore swimmer Joseph Schooling has qualified for the semi-finals of the men's 100m butterfly at the Fina World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, on early Saturday morning (Singapore time), after clocking 51.21 seconds in the heats on Friday afternoon (July 28).
The 22-year-old won his heat, while Hungary's Kristof Milak finished second and set a new world junior record of 51.23ec.
South African swimmer Chad le Clos was third with 51.28sec, while Schooling's national teammate Quah Zheng Wen was seventh in the same heat with 52.13sec.
Schooling was placed fourth overall from eight heats, but Quah missed out on the semi-finals, after placing 18th. Only the top 16 make it to the next round, with the last qualifier, American Tim Phillips, clocking 51.96sec.
Schooling's season best so far is 50.96sec, which he clocked to win at the Speedo Southern Zone Long Course Sectional Championships earlier in July.
The Singaporean said: "The most important thing was to make it to the top 16... I don't care what I did well or didn't do well.
"Now, it's on to the next race."
Quah was disappointed to place 18th again, which matched his finishes in the men's 200m fly and the 100m back heats. The UC Berkeley undergraduate had been aiming to make the 200m fly final in Budapest.
He said: "Eighteenth again, I honestly don't believe it... it's back to the drawing board for me.
"It's definitely very annoying for me, especially since it's the third time here. This (the 100m fly) wasn't my main event, so I would say that even though I was 18th again, I was definitely more disappointed with the 200m fly."
While Schooling is aiming to win the 100m fly in Hungary, and break Michael Phelps' world record of 49.82sec, American Caeleb Dressel has thrown down the gauntlet by clocking 50.08sec to top the heats on Friday.
Before that, Dressel's season-best timing was 50.87sec, which was also the world's best time in this event this year.
Quah said: "Definitely guys like Chad, Joe (Joseph) and Tim were talking about it in the call room, I think it was definitely impressive."
Schooling added: "I don't think anyone of us expected that, so it was a shocker. But it is what it is, you just have to focus on your next race.
"It is fast, it is a solid time, and I am pumped to race him. Tonight should be fun."
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