2015 SOUTHEAST ASIA GAMES
- Saturday, June 6 – Thursday, June 11
- OCBC Aquatics Centre, Singapore
- Prelims 9AM / Finals 7 PM (local time)
- Entry lists
- Meet results
In the six events contested tonight at the Southeast Asia Games, six new Games Records were set including two by Singaporean swim star Joseph Schooling.
Schooling, who trained in the United States with Sergio Lopez ( who is now coaching in Singapore) at the Bolles School, and most recently at the University of Texas with famed American coach Eddie Reese, is now a perfect eight for eight at these games.
In the first of his two events this evening, Schooling claimed gold in the 50m fly with a new Games Record of 23.49. That time fell just short of his own Asian record time of 23.43 from last summer’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland . Glenn Sutanto was his closest competitor, finishing a whopping 0.63 seconds behind him for the silver in 24.12.
Schooling also competed in the 200m IM, the last individual event of the evening. There, he took down his own Games Record time of 2:00.82 to throw down a 2:00.66 and take the win. In doing so, Schooling solidified a victory by over a second and a half. His Singaporean teammate Zheng Wen Quah, touched in 2:02.22 for the silver.
Lost in the Schooling commotion, Quah now has 10 individual medals with a chance to gain more in the medley relay and the 50m backstroke. He has five individual golds at the moment, and is quickly showing the world that Schooling isn’t Singapore’s only smoking gun.
Schooling is still however, still the most dominating factor on the men’s side. Schooling now has an amazing eight gold medals heading into the final day of competition. With one event remaining, he has the opportunity to earn nine gold medals in one edition of the games, something that has only been done by three athletes.
The last swimmer to do it was Joscelin Yeo, another athlete who swam for the University of Texas.
Although Schooling is dominating all headlines related to the games, Vietnam’s Thi Anh Vien Nguyen is making waves of her own. Nugyen has an amazing nine medals after the fifth day of competition, which includes seven golds.
Nugyen added one more gold during day five finals with 400m freestyle Games Record time of 4:08.66. There was hardly any competition for Nguyen in the final, who cruised to a very easy victory. Cai Lin Khoo was second way behind Nguyen in 4:17.79.
The time for Nguyen also doubled as a Vietnamese national record and her sixth of these SEA Games. Currently, she has two events remaining: the 100m fly and the 200m breaststroke.
She’ll compete in those tomorrow, where if she wins, she will go down in history as coming just shy of the most amount of golds ever won at one edition of the SEA Games. If she can win two, she’ll be in a similar situation as Schooling.
Nguyen and Schooling weren’t the only athletes to claim gold on day five as Ru’En Roanne Ho claimed gold in the 50m breaststroke for Singapore. Ho won the race by over a second, touching in at 31.45 to set a new Games Record and a new Singaporean national record. That win solidified Ho as one of the best female breaststrokers at these game after finishing silver in the 100 earlier in the meet.
Another Vietnamese national record went down, this time in the men’s 1500m freestyle. Quang Njat Lam cruised in for the win at 15:31.03 in order to break the national record, and set a new Games Record. Second was Aflah Fadlan Prawira for Indonesia. He set a new national record with his time of 15:38.23.
The last event of the night was the women’s 4x100m medley relay where Singapore claimed yet another gold medal. The women, which includes 50m breaststroke winner Ru’en Roanne Ho, collectively put together a 4:08.72 to break the national record which was set way back in 2009 at the SEA Games.
The win doubled as a Games Record, and took down team Thailand. Thailand was second overall in 4:12.80 followed by the Philippines in 4:16.19.
Tomorrow will be a monumental day in this competition as both Schooling and Nguyen will be fighting hard to earn nine gold medals in one edition of the SEA Games.
Don’t know why I can’t reply to a comment on mobile, but Joseph did say he’s not fully tapered
No one is ever fully tapered!
Another reason why the olympics are so great. Theres absolutely no doubt that they are fully rested. Sometimes even at Worlds(especially the year before olympics) a lot of elite athletes pump up the yardage that year to get ready for olympics.
Weird to note that his weakest performance of the week so far is perhaps in his best event, the 100 fly. “Only” 52.13.
I have a strange feeling he is not fully tapered.
Might have just been tired.. He was over a second slower leading off the 4×1 relay later on that night then he was in the individual 100 free earlier in the meet
He was 48.58 in the individual 100 free.. Then 49.74 to lead off the relay
Nguyen has said that she wants to beat Tao Li in Tao Li’s event, 100 Fly, on Tao Li’s home ground. And Tao Li is one who never ever bows down to a challenge. So the race is on tomorrow.
Great race by Joseph in the 50 Fly, 200 IM was workmanlike.
Stunning swim of the night was for me, Roanne’s 50 Breast win, where her time would have won her silver at Asian Games last year.