20-year-old Joseph Schooling continues to lower his own Singaporean and Asian records in the 50 fly, going 23.25 in the World Championship final.
Schooling has now set new Singaporean national records in all three of his swims – heats, semifinals and finals – and broke the Asian record in semifinals and now in the final.
His 23.25 just snuck under his previous best of 23.27 while taking 7th overall in the championship final in Kazan.
Schooling has had some nice drops in Russia. He came into the meet with a best time of 23.43 in the event, narrowly beating that with a 23.40 out of prelims. Semifinals saw his biggest explosion, with a drop down to 23.27 that also garnered him the continental record. China’s Yu Hexin, another great young swimmer, previously held the record at 23.37.
Schooling held 7th place in the final, nearly beating 2011 and 2013 world champ Cesar Cielo of Brazil in the process.
A breakout NCAA star with the Texas Longhorns, Schooling has wasted no time in transitioning his excellence to the long course pool. He was Singapore’s top threat at last summer’s Commonwealth Games, and dominated the Southeast Asia Games earlier this summer, winning 9 gold medals in 9 events.
He’ll swim the 100 and 200 flys later on this week.
Looking forward to his 100 and 200 fly. He really wants to medal in Kazan.