World C’ships: Quah Zheng Wen misses out on 200m butterfly semi-final spot

BUDAPEST — Singapore’s Quah Zheng Wen has missed out on a spot in the semi-finals of the men’s 200m butterfly at the Fina World Championships, after finishing his heat in a time of 1 min 56.76sec Tuesday afternoon (July 25).

He finished fifth in his heat, and subsequently 18th overall to miss the cut for the semi-finals. Only the top-16 advance to the semi-finals, which will be held on Tuesday night.

The top three qualifiers for the semi-finals were Laszlo Cseh of Hungary (1:54.08), Japan's Daiya Seto (1:54.89) and Viktor Bromer of Denmark ((1:55.13)

This is the second time in two races that Zheng wen has missed out on the semi-final cut. On Monday, he also finished 18th overall in the men's 100m backstroke heats.

At the Rio Olympics last year, Zheng Wen reached the semi-finals of the 200m butterfly. He then narrowly missed out on a place in the final when he clocked 1min 56.11sec to finish 10th overall out of 16 swimmers.

After this 200m butterfly heat, a disappointed Zheng Wen, who was among the top three entering the final 50m of the race, indicated that he was surprised to see himself finishing fifth eventually.

He said in quotes provided by the Singapore Swimming Association:  "I felt quite strong the whole way through, I feel like I could have gone harder definitely.

"I was surprised to see my placing as 5th, at the 150m mark, I glanced over underwater and I saw myself right with those guys, so I had a pretty good idea where I was during the race." 

Zheng Wen is taking part in five events at the World Championships. His next event is the 200m backstroke on Thursday.