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Schooling’s silver gives S’pore its first Commonwealth swimming medal

SINGAPORE — If top Singapore national swimmer Joseph Schooling goes on to medal at the Asian Games later this year, he will look back on the breakthrough achieved at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

National swimmer Joseph Schooling (left) takes a selfie with his coach Sergio Lopez to celebrate his medal. Photo: Joseph Schooling’s Twitter

National swimmer Joseph Schooling (left) takes a selfie with his coach Sergio Lopez to celebrate his medal. Photo: Joseph Schooling’s Twitter

SINGAPORE — If top Singapore national swimmer Joseph Schooling goes on to medal at the Asian Games later this year, he will look back on the breakthrough achieved at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

On Monday (yesterday morning, Singapore time), the 19-year-old became the first Singaporean to win a medal in swimming at the Commonwealth Games when he clinched the silver in the men’s 100m butterfly final in a national record of 51.69sec on the pen-ultimate day of the swimming competition at Tollcross Swimming Centre.

South African Olympic gold medallist Chad Le Clos won in a Games record of 51.29sec, with England’s Adam Barrett taking the bronze (51.93).

Mr Schooling is now ranked fourth in the 100m fly this year by swimming’sworld governing body FINA, behind Mr Le Clos (51.29), Russia’s Viacheslav Prudnikov (51.60) and 18-time US Olympic champion Michael Phelps (51.67), who holds the world record of 49.82 sec.

The medal, Mr Schooling’s first at a major Games outside the South-east Asian (SEA) Games, represents a significant breakthrough for him in the build-up to the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, where he could reach a final, possibly in the 100m or 200m fly.

Speaking before yesterday’s 200m individual medley heats, where he finished 15th of 24 swimmers in 2min 07.04sec, Mr Schooling, who described his silver medal as a “relief”, told TODAY the pressure in Glasgow was a timely wake-up call.

“I can’t really think about expectations. I never really realised it, but the expectations over the past few years have been building up and it showed for the first half of the Commonwealth Games,” he said.

“But I managed to calm myself and I’m very proud of being able to do this. This just shows how much I’ve matured over the past few years.”

The Singaporean is also the top-ranked Asian in the event with less than two months to the Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea, from Sept 19to Oct 4. The other Asians in the world’s top 10 rankings are Japan’s Takuro Fujii (51.84), who is sixth, and Hirofumi Ikebata (51.89), who is ninth.

Said Mr Schooling: “This medal is a big boost for me. I’m not fully rested for this meet, so that means I should be faster at the Asian Games, especially for my 200m fly.”

Last year, Mr Schooling, who graduated from the Bolles School in Florida earlier this year, was ranked among the top five in the 100m and 200m fly, as well as the 200m IM in his age group in the United States’ highly competitive collegiate programme.

His potential and achievements saw Singapore’s Ministry of Defence grant him deferment from National Service until August 2016, so he could prepare for the Rio Olympics.

Until his silver medal on Monday, the burden of spearheading Singapore’shopes in Glasgow had affected him, as he finished last in the 200m fly final in 1min 59.09sec — well off his national record of 1min 56.27sec.

Mr Schooling won six golds at the SEA Games in Myanmar last December, but Singapore national head coach Ian Turner, who will step down after the Games, believes Mr Schooling needed to get his first medal at a major international meet out of the way. “Success breeds success and more confidence. He needed it, because so much pressure was on him to win Singapore’s first swimming medal at the Commonwealth Games,” said Mr Turner.

“It is a massive achievement and he knows it. He broke that mental barrier and, now, anything can happen.”

Mr Schooling’s silver medal result was possibly the best performance by a Singaporean swimmer at a major international meet since Tao Li finished fifth in the women’s 100m fly final at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

However, Mr Schooling, who joins the University of Texas in Austin next month, where he will train under US Olympic men’s coach Eddie Reese, believes he has been his worst enemy.

“I was very tense during this meet and realised I had to stop over-thinking and just be myself. I went back to racing hard and having fun instead of thinking about winning a medal,” said Mr Schooling, who had been working towards a mid-51sec timing.

“It would really have surprised me if I went 51sec or faster. But I’m right where I should be now.” ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY ADELENE WONG

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