Schooling fails to get into his groove, but all set for pet event

BUDAPEST — Over 24 hours on Tuesday (July 25), national swimmer Joseph Schooling relaxed in his hotel room in the city, catching the waterpolo action at the Fina World Championships “live” on television.

Time out from the competitive hustle and bustle was expected to give the Olympic champion enough rest and recovery for the men’s 100m freestyle heats — which were held on Wednesday morning at the Duna Arena (afternoon, Singapore time). 

But Schooling’s decision to drop the 200m butterfly to focus on his remaining two events (100m freestyle, 100m fly) did not go quite as planned on Wednesday.

The 22-year-old missed out on a place in the 100m freestyle semi-finals after clocking 48.86sec in the heats to finish 17th overall — just one position and 0.06sec off.

Australia’s reigning silver medallist, Cameron McEvoy, was the quickest qualifier at 47.97sec, with Mehdy Metella (France) and Caeleb Dressel of the United States second and third, respectively, after clocking 48.18sec and 48.26sec. 

Schooling said it had taken him some time to get back into the groove after the day off. 

“It was a pretty rough morning (on Wednesday), not going to lie, having the day off, sitting in my hotel for 24 hours,” he revealed after the race. 

“First race after that, definitely felt pretty rough. 

“It was kind of hard to get the wheels turning, but I thought it was a pretty solid race, doing 48.8sec.”

Although his pet event is the 100m butterfly, and he was not expected to win a medal in the 100m freestyle, the result still came as a surprise as Schooling had easily qualified for the semi-finals of the same event at the Rio Olympics last year. 

It has been a mixed campaign for the Olympic champion in Budapest so far. He had bettered the Asian and national record for the 50m fly twice ahead of the final, but missed out on a medal after finishing fifth on Monday night. 

But the young swimmer is not worried, choosing to focus his attention on his pet event, the 100m fly, Friday morning (Friday afternoon, Singapore time). 

A bronze medallist in the event at the last world championships in Kazan, Russia, in 2015, Schooling is aiming for gold, and a new world record, this time. He added: “It is what it is, and I’ll just focus on the 100m fly right now. I thought there were some positives from that, some negatives. 

“But I’m not too worried, as it’s a good wake-up call and I’ll be ready for the next swim.” 

Success on the world’s biggest swimming stage will boil down to Schooling’s final race here in Budapest, but the swimmer shrugged off any talk of pressure on Wednesday, as he said: “This is the race (100m fly) I’ve been focusing on so I’m pretty confident and pretty comfortable. I’m happy this race is coming up, it’s what I’ve been anticipating the most and I think it’ll be my best one.” 

Meanwhile, Quah Zheng Wen will be competing in the 200m backstroke heats on Thursday afternoon. 

The 20-year-old will be hoping to break a streak after finishing overall 18th in the 100m backstroke and 200m butterfly heats, and missing out on the semi-finals for both.