Two More Golds and a 33-Year Old National Record for Joseph Schooling on Day 3 of SEA Games

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

Four More Meet Records were broken on Monday as the 2015 Southeast Asian Games rolled into their 3rd day in Singapore, and 6 gold medals went to the host team on what was otherwise a solemn day for the city-state.

Flags were at half-mast and a moment of silence was observed at competition venues today, after 8 Singaporeans, including 6 school children, died on a school trip when an earthquake his Malaysia over the weekend.

But sorrow was subdued, at least temporarily, by cheers when Singapore won 6 gold medals in 7 swimming events on the day to take a resounding lead in the sport-specific medals table, as well as the overall medals tables.

The results were highlighted by 19-year old American-trained Joseph Schooling, who broke Games Records in both the 50 free and 200 fly to bring his title tally to four on the meet.

His day started with a 22.47 in the men’s 50 free to beat out Thailand’s Napat Wesshasartar (23.08) and Indonesia’s Triady Fauzi Sidiq (23.11). The swim for Schooling broke the six-years old Meet Record of 22.62 done by Daniel Coakley of the Philippines; as well as a 33-year old Singapore National Record of 22.69 set by Ang Peng Siong in 1982.

That old record by Siong was done to win the 1982 U.S. Championships, and that year was the world’s fastest time. He was an NCAA Champion in the 50 yard free, but was never able to contest Olympic gold, as the event was not added to the schedule by the IOC until 1988.

Schooling now already owns the Singapore National Records in the 50, 100, and 200 long course meter freestyles from this meet alone (where he says he is “winging it” on the freestyle races), and he wasn’t done for the day yet.

Schooling came back later in the day in his first swim of one of his ‘pet events,’ the 200 fly, and broke another Singapore national Record.

This time, he touched in 1:55.73, which broke his own National standard of 1:56.27 from the 2013 World Championships; as well as his 2011 Meet Record of 1:56.67.

The time moved Schooling to 7th in the 2015 World Rankings.

Schooling is one-half of what is becoming a young two-headed monster for Singapore. His 18-year old teammate’ Zheng Wen Quah placed 2nd in that 200 fly with a 1:56.79, which matched the 1-2 finish at both the 2013 and 2011 meets in this event.

For Quah, that swim came roughly 45 minutes after he won gold in the men’s 200 backstroke, where he got a Meet and National Record of his own.

Improving upon a 4th-place finish from 2013, Quah swam 2:00.55 on Monday to break Raymond Papa’s 1997 Meet Record of 2:00.96, as well as his own 2:01.18 Singapore Record in the event.

Duy Khoi Tran took 2nd in 2:02.44, and defending champion Ricky Anggawidjaja from Indonesia was 3rd in 2:03.03.

Noticeably absent from the top of the podium, after four individual golds through the first two days, was Vietnams’ Thi Anh Nguyen. With no primary events on Monday, she still raced the women’s 50 backstroke (where she took bronze) and the women’s 100 free (where she earned silver).

Both races were won by women from Singapore. In the 50 backstroke, Tao Li won her second gold in two swims so far, touching in 28.90 ahead of teammate Shana Lim (29.36). Nguyen was just behind with a 29.40 for 3rd place.

For Li, that was a new Games Record, breaking her 29.14 from prelims, which in turn broke Lim’s 29.37 from 2011.

In the 100 free final, Ting Wen Quah won with a 55.93, which broke her own Meet Record of 56.03 from 2009. Quah failed to win the event in the two SEA Games since 2009. Nguyen took 2nd in 56.05, and Jasmine Alkhaldi of the Philippines took 3rd in 56.10.

Note: Ting Wen Quah is the older sister of Zheng Wen Quah.

Ting Wen Quah then anchored Singapore’s winning800 free relay with a 1:59.90 split, which made her the only swimmer in the field under two minutes. The event lacked some crumb of intensity, as only three relays vied for the three medals, though a bit of that was won back when Quah ran down Thai anchor Natthanan Junkrajang, who entered the water with a two second lead.

The lone event that didn’t see a gold medal from Singapore on Monday was the women’s 100 breaststroke, where Malaysia’s Jinq En Phee swam a 1:10.47 to win handily. Still, Singapore earned the consolation of silver and bronze from Roanne Ho (1:11.78) and Samantha Yeo (1:11.87), respectively. Malaysia has won the 100 meter breaststroke event at four consecutive SEA Games.