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Schooling qualifies for his first final at Commonwealth Games

SINGAPORE – Teen swimmer Joseph Schooling is through to the finals of the men’s 50m butterfly event at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games, after coming in fifth in the semi-finals this morning (3.30am onwards).

SINGAPORE – Teen swimmer Joseph Schooling is through to the finals of the men’s 50m butterfly event at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games, after coming in fifth in the semi-finals this morning (3.30am onwards).

At the Tollcross International Swimming Complex, Singaporean Schooling, 19, clocked 23.48secs to come in third in the first of the two semi-final races.

Although Schooling’s timing was outside of his new national record mark of 23.43secs set in the heats, it was good enough to qualify him for the finals. England’s Benjamin Proud came in first in the semi-finals in 23.16secs, while the Games record holder, South African Roland Schoeman, came in second (23.25secs) with compatriot Chad le Clos in third (23.29secs).

Schooling had earlier stunned the 50-strong field in the 50m butterfly heats by finishing second overall, ahead of 2012 Olympic gold medalist (200m butterfly) le Clos who timed 23.65secs then.

In the semi-finals of the women’s 100m butterfly, Singaporean swim queen Tao Li’s effort of 59.82secs could not qualify her for the finals. Tao, 24, started off strongly and was second at the 50m turn, only to fizzle out in the last 25m of the race.

England’s Rachel Kelly took the final eighth and final spot for qualification to the finals in 59.02secs. Siobhan O’Connor of England came in first in 57.57secs, while Canada’s Katerine Savard was second (57.83secs) and Australia’s Alicia Coutts was third (58.07secs).

Other Singaporean swimmers in action on day one of the swimming semi-finals – Quah Ting Wen (100m butterfly), Quah Zheng Wen (100m backstroke) and Samantha Yeo (50m breaststroke) – also failed to qualify for the finals.

The second day of the six-day swimming competition (Jul 24-Jul 29) will continue today as Singapore looks to win its first swimming medal at the quaddrenial Games.

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