30th SEA GAMES-SWIMMING: CLARK, Pampanga- Schooling retains 100m butterfly title, clocking 51.84 sec to qualify for Olympics

CLARK – A day after losing his 50m butterfly crown, Singapore swimmer Joseph Schooling silenced his critics with a gold-medal swim in the men’s 100m butterfly at the 30th SEA Games on Friday (Dec 6).

The 24-year-old clocked 51.84sec to claim top spot and retain his title, while teammate Quah Zheng Wen took the silver in 51.87sec. Vietnam’s Paul Le Nguyen won the bronze in 53.89sec.

.Joseph Schooling clocked 51.84sec to claim top spot in the men’s 100m butterfly.PHOTO: EPA-EFE

Their times have also ensured the duo’s qualification for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics although Schooling’s 51.84sec is some way off his Olympic winning time of 50.39 set in 2016. It is also considerably behind the world record of 49.50sec set by American Caeleb Dressel at this year’s World Championships in Gwangju, South Korea.

Joseph Schooling clocked 51.84sec to claim top spot and retain his title, while teammate Quah Zheng Wen took the silver in 51.87sec. Vietnam’s Paul Le Nguyen won the bronze in 53.89sec.  PHOTO: EPA-EFE

Quah had posted the quickest time of 52.18sec in the morning heats on Friday, with Schooling the second fastest in 52.99sec.

Quah made up for the 100m fly miss by claiming the 200m backstroke gold later in 2:00.06.

Schooling, who won six gold medals at the last edition in 2017, will compete in three more events: the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay, 100m freestyle and 4x100m medley.

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Quah and Schooling won gold in the men’s 4x200m freestyle relay on Wednesday but the latter was beaten by teammate Teong Tzen Wei in the 50m fly a day later.