SEA Games: Schooling’s a fan favourite again while Jing Wen’s star shines

KUALA LUMPUR – When he landed at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) on Saturday evening (Aug 19), he was greeted by a pack of Malaysian media eager for a first interview bite with the Olympic champion. 

On Monday night, even the race officials whispered Joseph Schooling’s name as they bantered in Malay ahead of the men’s 50 butterfly final at the National Aquatic Centre at Bukit Jalil, as the 22-year-old kicked off his six-gold medal campaign at the 29th SEA Games.

And Singapore’s swimming superstar did not disappoint some 1,000 spectators who turned out at the pool on Monday night, as he absolutely dominated the 50m fly by clocking a new Games record time of 23.06sec en route to gold. His result in the one-lap sprint was almost a second quicker than his closest rival Triady Fauzi Sidiq of Indonesia, who claimed silver in 24.01sec. 

Vietnam’s Paul Le Nguyen took the bronze in 24.37sec.

Schooling had caused a bit of a kerfuffle in Malaysia two weeks ago when he said in a media interview that “it would be nice to go to Malaysia’s backyard to teach them a thing or two”. He later clarified that his comments had been taken out of context, and subsequently apologised to the host country.

On Monday, however, all appeared to be forgiven for the Olympic gold medallist as he was embraced by the home crowd who cheered and applauded his result in 50m fly. 

Looking relaxed after clinching his first gold medal of the Games, Schooling, who is also penciled in for the 100m fly, 100m freestyle and three relays, said: “The first swim’s always nervy but I’m glad to get that first swim under my belt…hopefully I can get better throughout the meet. 

“I’m happy to be back in Malaysia, I have a huge team supporting me, my family is over here so I wanted to do my best.

“We’re here to have a good meet and put on a good show and the crowd wants to see that. It’s a working night, people come out in stands to support us, that’s amazing.”

But while Schooling got off to a good start at the SEA Games on Monday night, teammate Quah Zheng Wen was beaten to the 50m backstroke gold by Indonesia’s I Gede Siman Sudartawa, who touched the wall in a new Games record time of 25.20sec. Quah, who was the event’s defending champion, finished second in 25.39s, while Vietnam’s Nguyen was third in 25.82sec.

“I’m kind of disappointed with my result as it wasn’t what I wanted, but there are no guarantees in the 50m. He (Siman) had a better race,” he said. 

Instead, it was another Quah who stole the limelight.

Jing Wen, the youngest of the three Quah siblings at 17, clinched her first SEA Games gold of her promising swimming career when she defeated Vietnam’s defending champion and powerhouse Nguyen Thi Anh Vien in the 200m butterfly. Her winning time of 2min 12.03sec also broke Olympian Tao Li’s nine-year-old national record of 2:12.63, which was set during the high-tech swimsuits era at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. 

Nguyen eventually finished fourth in 2:16.61, while her compatriot Thi My Thao Le (2:14.52) and Thailand’s Patarawadee Kittiya (2:15.05) were second and third respectively.

Jing Wen, who won a bronze in the 400m individual medley in 2015 and will be competing in seven events here, was delighted to better the national mark. “I did a 2:12 during the Singapore Open and a lot of people said it was 0.1sec off and I was a bit bummed out then,” she said.

“I wasn’t really thinking about it but when I touched the wall, I was very happy.” 

Barely 90 minutes later, she was tasting success in the pool again - this time in the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay.

Joining forces with older sister Ting Wen, teammates Amanda Lim and Natasha Ong, the quartet was just too strong as it led from the start to win in a new Games and national record time of 3:44.38. Thailand and Indonesia took silver and bronze in 3:46.46 and 3:50.56. 

Beaming with pride, Ting Wen said of her little sister: “I was in the stands (watching) and I didn’t have to warm up so much because my heart rate was very high. 

“I’m proud of her, she’s mentioned that a lot of people like to compare all three of us. 

“But she showed she’s a swimmer on her own and shouldn’t be compared to anyone at all. She’s Jing.”