15TH SINGAPORE NATIONAL SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS 2019
- Wednesday, June 19th – Saturday, June 22nd
- OCBC Aquatic Centre
- LCM
- Meet Site
- SwimSwam Preview
- Day 1 Recap/Day 2 Recap
- Start Lists/Results
The crowd was anxious to see its Olympic champion Joseph Schooling in the pool again on day 3 of the 2019 Singapore Nationals, but they only got to see him once.
After registering a morning time of 54.63 to place 6th in the men’s 100m fly heats, the 24-year-old former Texas Longhorn withdrew from the finals, leaving the field wide open for the remainder of the contenders.
Sajan Prakash of India hit the wall first tonight in 53.73 while Jung Ong of Singapore finished with the host nation title in 53.83.
As for Schooling, the man has already qualified for the World Championships via his performance at the 2018 Asian Games. He has withdrawn from the rest of this meet.
Per The Straits Times, “National Training Centre head coach Gary Tan said the decision to withdraw from the SNSC was a collective one between Schooling and the coaching staff, and that the Olympic 100m fly champion was neither sick nor injured.”
“We are trying to make sure (Schooling) is in a good frame of mind going into the world championships and we want him to be ready to race there,” added Tan.
Stephan Widmer, the national head coach and performance director, said: “This part of the meet was for him to expose himself to a lot of racing – there was always the (possibility) of potentially having to say, ‘With the Worlds coming up and the recovery process, we maybe have to pull the plug’ and that’s what happened.
“He did a lot of tough racing and it wasn’t about the times; it was about putting himself out there and pushing the body again and again and it seems like it just got to that fine line.
“We thought it was better to stop that now and get him to recover over the next few days before we resume the training and taper towards the world championships.”
We’ve reached out to Schooling for comment as well.
The women’s 100m fly saw a 13-year-old visiting swimmer Geunhui Lee get the win in 1:00.71, just .06 ahead of runner-up Nicholle Toh Fann Rui.
National record holder Lionel Khoo took the men’s 50m breast in 28.21 after having clocked a new meet record in 28.08 in the morning, while Christie Chue completed her breaststroke sweep with the women’s 50m breast gold in 32.22.
Joseph needs to return to America ASAP. No one knew who he was in America. Well we did. The pressure to perform is too much for him in Singapore. Scratching because you’re not going to win or perform well is just sad.
Don’t let Schooling distract you from the fact that a 13 year old girl was 1:00.71 in the 100 fly…
Does anyone from Texas know how his lifestyle changed after Rio? He became a millionaire and national hero, did he just become a party fiend?
I remember this happening to Daniel Gyurta, but he did rebound in 2012.
After spending 10 years in the US, it definitely takes time to adjust back, plus now he has a ton of sponsors and opened a swim school. Little wonder that it’s taking a toll on him. I hope he finds his rhythm again though.
he’s saving his best swim for the Olympics, don’t worry.
Problem is his best these days is about 52.5…in the Olympics, there’s not much difference between that and his prelim swim in Singapore :/
Nah he’s saving his best for practice
This guy hit the mountaintop, and it almost seems like he just called a quits really, taking the income…I really hope I’m wrong and he can be back in 50.3 form, but I really doubt it at this point.
Surprised he didn’t use his 1 min stomach virus excuse. I’ll bet Eddie is so happy not to deal with all his drama.
Schooling is doomed. He has been declining since the Olympic Games. Last time it was really thrilling to see him race. Now he is getting lazy and even his pet event, 100 fly has issues. I think it is better for him to train in US. I am doubtful about Singapore training.
Testing out his Tokyo race plan