Schooling’s a 'fighter': Lopez

SINGAPORE — National swimmer Joseph Schooling’s quest for a spot in the final of the men’s 200m butterfly at the FINA World Championships came to an end early this morning, as the 20-year-old finished 10th overall in the semi-finals with his time of 1min 56.11sec.

Hungary’s Laszlo Cseh was the top qualifier in the semi-finals after clocking 1:53.53, with defending champion Chad le Clos of South Africa (1:54.50) and Japan’s Masato Sakai (1:54.75) second and third, respectively.

“I’m disappointed with my results but every time I hit the pool, I aim to swim my best — for myself and for Singapore. it was tough today though, and I pushed myself as hard as I could,” said Schooling after his race. “These guys are great swimmers, and I just have to get faster. I need to focus and get ready for the 100m butterfly.”

The Kazan world championships have been an eventful one so far for the young swimmer, who had targeted three medals in all his individual events ahead of the meet. On Sunday night, Schooling set a new Asian and national record of 23.27s in the men’s 50m butterfly semi-finals, before breaking the two marks again a day later with a 23.25s swim in the final, where he finished seventh.

Despite the disappointments in the 50m and 200m butterfly, national head coach Sergio Lopez is confident Schooling will come back even stronger. He will compete in his final individual event, the 100m butterfly heats, on Friday.

Speaking to media in a phone interview from Kazan, Lopez said: “He was disappointed and upset (after the 50m fly), but very mature about the way he reacted. He is a fighter, and he is not going to give up.”

Lopez also pointed out that Schooling had not tapered fully for the world championships due to the NCAA Swimming Championships and SEA Games.

With the Rio Games to kick off a year from today, Lopez is happy with his charge’s progress so far, and he ranks Schooling among the world’s best swimmers. “I think he is measuring up pretty well,” he said. “Watching Joseph in the warm-ups, the way he swims, and the way he is thinking, he is up there with everybody else. We will see how the training that he has done pays off now, and how he handles his races.

“The Olympic Games next year is a different meet. There are going to be a lot of great swimmers swimming in the Olympics very well, who didn’t even make the final (here), or the top 16. Look at the American relay team that didn’t even make the top eight. So I am not going to be worried a lot if Joseph doesn’t make the final.

“Next year is a different story. We have 12 months to train, and Joseph has 12 months to train. So after this meet, we will assess what he really needs to do to make sure he gets to Rio in the best condition possible.”

The third day of action at the World Championships also saw Quah Ting Wen placing 38th out of 63 swimmers in the women’s 200m freestyle heats, while Lionel Khoo clocked 28.87s in the 50m breaststroke to finish 46th out of 76.

Teenage swimmer Quah Zheng Wen, who won 12 medals at the SEA Games, missed out on the semi-finals of the 200m butterfly yesterday with his time of 1:58.32, which placed him in 21st position among the 40-strong field.

Lopez stressed yesterday that there is more work to be done with the 11-strong squad, as he said: “I’m not happy because as a coach, you want to perform better and better every time, and coming to World Champs, you want the swimmers to have a chance to do their best, and that didn’t happen with everybody.

“But I am also happy because we have very good people who are motivated, and they are trying to swim the best they can.”

Other results:

- American teen sensation Katie Ledecky broke the world record for the women’s 1,500m freestyle for the second time with her swim of 15min 25.48sec

- Adam Peaty (Great Britain) clocked 26.42sec in the men’s 50m breaststroke for a new world record to better Cameron van der Burgh’s mark from the afternoon’s heats