Schooling eyes medals at world meet

SINGAPORE — He set pulses racing at last month’s SEA Games, plundering nine gold medals in the pool to equal Joscelin Yeo’s record haul from the 1993 Games.

And Joseph Schooling has now set his sights on the winner’s podium at the FINA World Championships, which will be held in Kazan, Russia, from July 24 to Aug 9.

Schooling is aiming for medals in the men’s 50m, 100m and 200m butterfly, and he can expect to face tough competition from the likes of Olympic gold medallist (200m butterfly) Chad le Clos (South Africa) and Hungary’s five-time Olympic medallist Laszlo Cseh. He is also pencilled in for five men’s and mixed relay events. This year’s World Championships will also be a major test for the United States-based swimmer, who is gunning for a medal at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

Schooling will be the first Singaporean to win a medal at the World Championships if he is successful in his bid, but he is not cowed by the challenge. “SEA Games is a thing in the past ... and I’m done working on the small things,” said the 20-year-old. “I’m looking at medalling at all my individual events (at the World Championships), which will give me a good boost heading into the Olympics.”

Schooling has been in fine form in the past year, winning a total of four medals at the 2014 Commonwealth and Asian Games, where he won a gold in the 100m fly. His personal best (PB) time of 51.69s in the 100m fly is the seventh-fastest time in the world this year, while his PB (1min 55.73s) in the 200m fly would have placed him sixth at the 2013 World Championships.

Schooling has met the “A” qualifying mark for the 2016 Olympics in the 100m freestyle, 100m and 200m fly — as well as the “B” mark for two more events — but he has narrowed it down to only two events (100m and 200m fly) in the hope of achieving his Olympic medal dream.

At the advice of coach Eddie Reese, he also moved out of The University of Texas into an off-campus apartment two months ago to allow him to focus fully on his training.

While Reese had said his young protege is “not even close to his best” yet, Schooling is not about to get carried away.

“I don’t want to know what Eddie (Reese) thinks I can be. Once I start thinking about my limits, I automatically put myself at a disadvantage,” he said. “I am on track, and times are irrelevant at this point, as I have qualified (for the World Champs and the Olympics), and it is about medals and winning now.” ADELENE WONG