Give Schooling room: Turner

SINGAPORE — The pressure of racing against some of the world’s best swimmers is one thing, but the pressure of being heavily expected to deliver your country’s first medal in the sport at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow is another.

And Ian Turner, head coach of Singapore’s national swimming team, believes the pressure and desire of wanting to win Singapore’s first medal in swimming at the Commonwealth Games may have hindered Joseph Schooling’s overall performance so far.

On Friday, the 19-year-old finished last in the final of the 200m butterfly — his pet event — in a time that was more than two seconds off his national record of 1min 56.27secs.

However, Schooling bounced back on Sunday, setting a national record of 52.22s in the 100m fly to qualify for the final, which took place this morning.

Schooling’s effort made him the third-fastest qualifier, finishing behind England’s Adam Barrett (52.00) and South Africa’s Chad Le Clos (52.12). He was also scheduled to race in the 200m individual medley heats today.

In a phone interview from Glasgow yesterday, Turner told TODAY critics tend to overlook the difficulties faced by Schooling who, along with team-mate and two-time Asian Games women’s 50m fly champion Tao Li, carries much of the weight of Singapore’s medal hopes at major meets.

“Joseph has high expectations of himself, and that can result in stress. And when that happens, your muscles can get tense,” said Turner.

“There is a lot of talk about Joseph winning Singapore’s first swimming medal at the Commonwealth Games. This increases expectations on the boy and does not do him any good.

“Unfortunately, people can be good at being quick to throw criticisms when things go wrong, but they do not understand the level of competition here and the stuff athletes have to overcome.”

Schooling, who will enrol into the University of Texas in Austin next month where he will train under United States Olympic men’s team coach Eddie Reese, had also set a national benchmark of 23.43 in the 50m fly in the heats on Thursday en route to the final, where he finished seventh.

However, Schooling, who holds five national individual records, had complained of cramps on his shoulders and limbs before the start of the 200m fly final. Had he clocked his personal best time, it would have won him a silver medal.

Turner revealed he and Sergio Lopez, Schooling’s longtime coach at the Bolles School in Florida, had helped him get over the disappointment of his sluggish performance in the 200m fly final.

“We spent a lot of time talking to him, and get him to rationalise things better,” said Turner.

“(Hopefully) he has got his nerves out of the way. He showed a lot of depth in the strength of his character to bounce back like that (in the 100m fly).”