Schooling guns for 5th Asian Games medal, 4x100m medley relay team qualifies 4th fastest

JAKARTA — Three-time Asian champion Joseph Schooling is aiming to add another medal to his two gold, two bronze haul at the 2018 Asian Games on the final day of racing in Jakarta, as the men's 4x100m medley relay team qualified fourth fastest in the heats on Friday (Aug 24) morning.

Swimming in heat 3, the quartet of Quah Zheng Wen, Lionel Khoo, Schooling and Darren Lim finished third in a time of 3min 39.69sec to place fourth overall among the 17-nation field.

Japan topped qualifying with a time of 3:36.95, while defending champion China and Kazakhstan were placed second and third in 3:38.14 and 3:38.57 respectively.

The men's 4x100m medley relay is the final event for Olympic champion Schooling, who has won two gold in the 50m and 100m fly, and two bronze in the relays.

With a competitive field lining up in the medley relay, this was the first time that Schooling had to swim in the morning's heats.

He said: "This is basically our A team, we know how tough it's going to be and the result shows. I'm happy that the coaches put a strong four in."

Lim, who anchored the relay in the 100m freestyle, said: "We give our best we couldn't take any chances as the competition is quite tight, and it's good that we made it."

While Team Singapore will be looking to the relay team, particularly Schooling, to add another title to swimming's six-medal haul, he told reporters that he is" not thinking about medals, but we want to go out there and do our best tonight".

Quah said: "We'll just swim our best race and count on our teammates and go out there and do our best and everything else is a bonus."

Khoo, who will swim the breaststroke leg, added:" Tonight's going to be an interesting race, and I'm confident."

The race will take place just after 8.30pm on Friday night.