Quah Zheng Wen lets loose and scores new 200m backstroke national mark

BUDAPEST — There was no holding back as national swimmer Quah Zheng Wen took off from the starting blocks of the Duna Arena on Thursday (July 27) in the men’s 200m backstroke heats. 

Already stung by two misses in the 100m backstroke and 200m butterfly earlier this week at the Fina World Championships, the 20-year-old was not about to give up without a fight.

Swimming in Heat 2, the Singaporean led the field from the get-go, claiming top spot in a new national record and personal best time of 1min 59.49sec.

While Quah did not nab a top-16 place for the semis after placing 24th overall at the end of the heats, the result was an encouraging one as it was the second time in two months that he has broken the record. He first bettered the previous mark during the Singapore National Championships in June.

Ahead of the world meet, Quah, a freshman at the University of California, Berkeley, had set the goal of qualifying for at least one final out of his scheduled five events in Budapest.

But the young swimmer has had to refocus after placing 18th — just two spots from the semis — in the 100m backstroke and the 200m butterfly.

Quah later revealed that it was his chat with Singapore Swimming Association (SSA) technical director Sonya Porter that made the difference for him on race day.

“After the 200m fly and all that, Sonya and I have been talking about trying to go out a little bit harder in the 200,” he said.

“I tried that today, just got to take it out harder, be a little bit braver. I just gave it a go, and I’m pretty pleased with the best time and new national record.

“I definitely think they’re some things that can be improved, but I’m pretty happy considering I’m not swimming that much backstroke.

“This has been a race that I’ve never actually raced at a high level since 2012 London.”

Quah admitted that “bad race planning” had scuppered his chances of making the semi-finals of the 200m fly, which is his pet event.

He said: “The 200 fly was on me, it was just bad race planning and being a little bit too over confident maybe.

“At this level of competition, no matter how good you are, you can never really let your guard down. At any other meet, 1:56 in the 200 fly would have made it pretty easy at any other meet, but unforeseen circumstances, like the heat after me with Laszlo (Cseh) and the home crowd drove the heat really fast.”

The hard lessons from the 200m fly will be on his mind as he takes to the starting blocks of the 100m fly heats today in a bid to make the top 16.

He will be joined by teammate and Olympic champion Joseph Schooling, who will be aiming for gold in his final event at the world meet. 

After a confidence-boosting swim in Thursday’s 200m backstroke, Quah — who made the  semi-finals of the 100m and 200m fly at last year’s Olympics Games — is ready to restart what has been a lukewarm campaign in Budapest so far.  

“I’m not at that level where I can afford to sit back and chill so I’ll definitely be going hard in the morning,” said Quah, who has one more event, the 50m backstroke, on Saturday.

“I’ve got a good grasp of what I have to do in the morning, and to make it back at night.

“I’m feeling confident for Saturday, and I feel ready to go.”