Swimming: Joseph Schooling finishes world championships with two national records in 200m butterfly and 200m IM

Joseph Schooling after winning the 50m butterfly gold at the 2011 SEA Games. He set two new national open records in the 200m butterfly and 200m individual medley. (Photo 1 by Matt King/Getty Images for SSC)

Barcelona, Spain, July 19-August 4, 2013 – Joseph Schooling of Singapore set two new national open records and swam in two semi-finals at the 15th FINA World Championships.

Joseph, 18, broke his own 200 metres butterfly mark, but just missed out on a place in the final, when he clocked 1 minute 56.27 seconds in the semi-finals. He improved his 20-month-old mark by 0.4 seconds, finishing 10th overall. Only the top eight advanced to the final.

Olympic champion Chad Le Clos from South Africa was the top qualifier in 1:55.33, while American Tom Luchsinger took the last spot in 1:56.10, just 0.17s quicker than Joseph. Le Clos, the reigning Olympic champion, went on to win the gold medal in 1:54.32.

In the 200m individual medley, Joseph qualified for the semi-finals by the skin of his teeth when he swam the 16th fastest time in the heats. He clocked 1:59.99 to rewrite his own national open record of 2:00.77 set in May.

In the semi-finals, Joseph clocked 2:00.49 to rank 16th. Although he did not improve on his time in the heats, it was still faster than his pre-championship best.

Joseph just missed out on qualifying for the 100m butterfly semi-finals after finishing 17th overall in the heats. The national open record holder clocked a time of 52.56 seconds, which was a mere four hundredths of a second behind Philip Heintz of Germany, who took the 16th and last semi-final spot. Joseph’s national open record for the 100m butterfly remains at 52.33s.

In the 200m freestyle heats, Joseph led his heat with 50m to go but eventually finished sixth, and 34th overall, in a time of 1:50.15. It took a 1:48.37 to qualify for the semi-finals. His personal best and national open record stands at 1:49.47.

Tao Li at the 2011 SEA Games. She clocked 26.47s in the 50m butterfly, her fastest time in over two years. (Photo 2 by Nicky Loh/Getty Images for SSC)

Tao Li
Tao Li qualified for the SEA Games in the 100m backstroke and set a new personal best in the 50m backstroke.

In the 100m backstroke heats, Tao Li bettered the SEA Games qualifying mark of 1 minute 3.69 seconds when she swam a 1:03.31 to finish 33rd of 50 swimmers. It was her fastest time of the year.

In the 50m backstroke heats, Tao Li set a new personal best of 28.90s and finished 24th out of 51 swimmers. She improved on her previous best of 0.01s set at the 2010 Asian Games. A 28.60s swim was needed to make the top-16 cut for the semi-finals.

Tao Li swam her fastest 50m butterfly time in over two years when she qualified for the semi-finals. She clocked a time of 26.48 seconds, the fastest since a 26.43s swim at the previous world championships in 2011. It placed her 13th overall out of the 60 swimmers in the heats.

Tao Li holds the national record of 26.10s set at the 2010 Asian Games, where she won the gold medal.

In the semi-finals, Tao Li improved her heat time by 0.01s, tying her for 13th place with Russia’s Svetlana Chimrova. A 26.12s swim was needed to qualify for the final.

Tao Li has traditionally done well in this event at the world championships. In 2007, she qualified for the final and finished seventh. In 2011, she missed out on a place in the final by one position.

In the 100m butterfly heats, Tao Li qualified for the semi-finals with her 58.94s swim. It is the fastest time she has swum this year. She placed 13th overall, with the top 16 advancing. China’s Lu Ying was the only other Asian who swam in the semis. Tao Li dropped a position in the last-16 round and was timed at 59.02s.

Quah Ting Wen
Ting Wen clocked a time of 2 minutes 2.57 seconds in the women’s 200m freestyle heats, and placed 29th of 44 swimmers.

She holds the national record of 1:59.21, and has a year’s best of 2:01.13.

In the 200m butterfly heats, Ting Wen clocked a time of 2:14.10 and was placed 21st of 26 swimmers. Her PB stands at 2:13.77 and was set in June 2013.

In the 100m freestyle heats, Ting Wen finished 38th out of 73 swimmers with her time of 56.70s. It was an improvement on the 56.81s she clocked in the first leg of the 4x100m freestyle relay at the same event.

Danny Yeo
In the men’s 100m freestyle heats, Danny Yeo finished 40th out of 86 swimmers with his time of 50.92 seconds. It was off his national record of 50.51s set in June 2013.

Samantha Yeo
Samantha broke her 50m breaststroke personal best and came within striking distance of the national open and under-17 record. She bettered her own mark of 33.01s with her 32.69s swim, which was just 0.25 seconds off Roanne Ho’s national record of 32.44s. Samantha’s time was the 37th best in a field of 74.

In the 200m breaststroke heats, Samantha clocked a time of 2 minutes 32.55 seconds and was placed 24th in a field of 36. It was just off her personal best and national under-17 record of 2:32.34 set in June 2013. Nicolette Teo holds the national open record of 2:31.96.

In the 100m breaststroke heats, Samantha finished 36th in a field of 61 swimmers with her swim of 1:11.17.

In the 200m IM heats, Samantha finished 38th of 44 swimmers with her time of 2:20.19. Her PB of 2:19.11 was set at the National Championships in June 2013.

Lynette Lim
In the women’s 400m freestyle heats, Lynette clocked a time of 4:14.76, her fastest since December 2009 when she set the current national record of 4:11.24. She placed 22nd out of 37 swimmers.

Amanda Lim
Amanda equalled her season’s best time of 25.86 seconds in the women’s 50m freestyle heats. She placed 29th out of 83 swimmers. Amanda is the national open and under-17 record holder at 25.38s, and has a best time of 25.71s since January 2010 when non-textile swimsuits were outlawed.

Women’s 4x100m freestyle relay heats
The Singapore quartet of Ting Wen, Mylene Ong, Lynette and Amanda clocked a time of 3:48.85 to finish 14th out of 15 teams. Ting Wen led off with a 56.81s split and was followed by Amanda (57.02), Mylene (57.92), and Lynette (57.10). It was the fifth-fastest time ever by a local team. The same four swimmers set the current national mark of 3:45.73 at the 2009 SEA Games.

Women’s 4x200m freestyle relay heats
The quartet of Ting Wen, Lynette, Amanda and Mylene finished 12th out of 13 teams when they clocked 8:15.91, the fourth-fastest time by a local team. Their splits were 2:02.70, 2:03.22, 2:04.59 and 2:05.40 respectively.

Women’s 4x100m medley relay heats
The national record of 4:10.38 which had stood for over three and a half years was nearly taken down by Tao Li, Samantha, Ting Wen and Amanda, who put forth a collective effort of 4:10.69.

Tao Li led off with a 1:03.44 backstroke leg, which was consistent with her 1:03.31 showing in the individual event earlier in the meet. Samantha was next with a 1:11.05 breaststroke swim. Ting Wen followed with a 59.70s butterfly split, before Amanda finished off with her 56.50s split in the freestyle.

They finished 15th out of 17 teams in the heats, ahead of South Korea and Hong Kong.

This team is likely to feature at December’s Southeast Asian Games, and have every reason to be optimistic about breaking the national mark. Tao Li’s 100m backstroke personal best stands at 1:01.60, while Samantha is capable of swimming in the 1:10 region for the breaststroke.

In comparison, the quartet which holds the national mark have respective splits of 1:03.37 (Shana Lim), 1:11.74 (Roanne Ho), 59.05 (Tao Li) and 56.22 (Ting Wen).

Team Singapore at the 15th FINA World Swimming Championships