Olympic Aquatics Stadium, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 11, 2016 — Quah Zheng Wen of Singapore dives off during the semi-finals of the 100m butterfly. Quah clocked 52.26s to finished 8th in his semis, and 15th out of 16 overall. To qualify for the semis, he had earlier clocked a new personal best of 52.08s to finish 16th out of 43. (Photo © TSRIO2016 Reuters/Jeremy Lee)
Thursday, September 22, 2016 — Swimmer Quah Zheng Wen has received a further deferment of his National Service from the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) to give him the time to train and take part in the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.
Zheng Wen, who turns 20 on September 29, was granted his first deferment for the lead up to the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Zheng Wen made it to the semi-finals of the 100m and 200m butterfly, missing out on the 200m fly final by just 0.08s.
Wrote Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen on his Facebook page, “For the first time ever, we now have two Olympics medal prospects – Zheng Wen and Joseph Schooling – who are exceptional sportsmen and meet all the existing criteria for deferment. This speaks well of our sporting talent in our younger generation. I hope their achievements will encourage many more sportsmen and women to excel.
“I spoke to Zheng Wen and his father. I thanked them for their commitment to excellence, the many hours of training Zheng Wen has put in and many more needed for the next four years, for him to win in Tokyo 2020. I wished Zheng Wen the very best in his training and his ambition to win glory for Singapore.”
Joseph Schooling also received an extended deferment from MINDEF for the 2020 Olympics in August after his gold-medal win in Rio.
Before Schooling and Zheng Wen, there were four sportsmen who had their NS deferred according to MINDEF: Swimmers Ang Peng Siong, Peter Leong, Sng Ju Wei, and sailor Maximilian Soh Khyan Tat.
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