Lima, Peru, Saturday, August 20, 2011 — Singapore’s Joseph Schooling added another feather to his cap when he broke the national 50 metres Butterfly record at the 3rd FINA World Junior Swimming Championships.

Joseph, 16, clocked a time of 24.95 seconds in last night’s heats to better Nicholas Tan’s mark of 24.99 sec set more than three years ago. He was the fifth fastest in the heats, and advanced to this morning’s semi-finals, where he clocked 25.02 sec to only place 10th and missed out on a spot in the final.

Both times were quicker than his own national under-17 record of 25.15 sec set at June’s national championships. Joseph, who finished fifth in yesterday’s 100m Butterfly final, once again proved that he could hold his own against a field of older teenaged swimmers in this meet, where the age restriction for boys is 16 to 18.

Joseph now holds eight of the nine national records in the butterfly event. He owns the open, under-17 and under-14 records in the 50m, 100m and 200m, except for the under-14 200m butterfly, which is held by 14-year-old Quah Zheng Wen, another young Singaporean swimmer making waves in the pool with his sterling times.