Lima, Peru, Friday, August 19, 2011 – 16 year old Joseph Isaac Schooling finished fifth in the boys’ 100 meters Butterfly final at the 3rd FINA World Junior Swimming Championships.

Joseph, the national record holder in this event, clocked a time of 54.07 seconds, and had recorded times of 54.16 and 54.45 in the semi-finals and preliminaries respectively. His national record stands at 53.71 sec which he registered at the ASEAN Schools Games in July, en route to the gold medal.

American Maclin Davis won the gold medal in a time of 53.24 sec, with Kenta Hirai (Japan, 53.40 sec) and Arthur Mendes Filho (Brazil, 53.96 sec) picking up silver and bronze respectively.

Joseph, the youngest in the field from the semi-final stage onwards, completed the first 50m in last place, turning in 26.26 sec. This was more than a second slower than Davis’ compatriot Erich Peske and Hirai, who were the early leaders. Although the Singaporean’s back 50m split was the fastest in the field (27.81 sec), the deficit was too much to claw back, and Joseph finished eleven hundredths of a second from a podium place.

His splits recorded at the ASEAN Schools Games final and the World Junior Championships semi-finals – his fastest and third quickest times in his books – were 25.91/27.80 and 25.82/28.34.

The teenager is having a breakout year. He broke the national under-17 100m Butterfly record by a full second at the Indianapolis Grand Prix on March 6th, clocking times of 55.45 and 55.39 sec. Joseph improved the times to 54.58 and 54.19 sec at June’s national championships – the latter time breaking the then-national record of 54.46 sec – before going sub-54 seconds at the ASEAN Schools Games.

Joseph has also set national marks in the 200m Butterfly (1 minute 58.95 sec) and 200m Individual Medley (2:05.07), as well as breaking the national under-17 mark in the 50m Butterfly (25.15 sec). In all, he has set five national open and 11 national under-17 marks this year alone.

Joseph, who has swum the 200m Freestyle and 100m Breaststroke as well in this meet, will also compete in the 50m Butterfly (tonight 10.30pm, Singapore time), 100m Freestyle (Saturday, August 20, 10pm) and 200m Butterfly (Sunday, August 21, 11pm).