BUDAPEST - National swimmer Quah Zheng Wen narrowly missed out on a semi-final spot at the swimming World Championships for the second straight day after he finished 18th overall in the 200m butterfly heats on Tuesday (July 25).

The 20-year-old clocked 1min 56.76sec in heat three at Budapest's Danube Arena and was 0.05sec outside the top 16 times required to advance to the semi-finals later the same day.

Brazil's Leonardo De Deus was the final qualifier with a time of 1:56.71.

Quah, whose personal best is 1:56.01, set at last year's Rio Olympics, when he came within 0.08sec of making the 200m fly final, said after his race: "I am disappointed especially to miss out on the semis. I was expecting to do well and my target was to make top 16 from the heats.

"There is nothing more I can do but to forget about what has happened. I still have three events and I am sure I will learn from this and will get better in the next few days."

Over the final lap, he had taken a quick glance to see where his rivals were and felt confident that he was on track to finish third in his heats. He finished fifth.

"I don't think it did cost me the race. In terms of execution of the race, it was how I wanted it to be. My splits were good but I just didn't get it right at the end.

"I felt quite strong the whole way through. I feel like I could have gone harder.

"Was surprised I finished fifth in my heats. I looked underwater and had a pretty good idea of where I was in the race.

"I was gunning to be among the top three.

"I wasn't saving myself, definitely feeling strong the whole race. But I still have a little bit more left. It wasn't a conscious effort to slow down or anything."

Quah had finished 18th in the 100m backstroke event on Monday.

He competed at the 2015 edition in Kazan, Russia but did not progress from the heats in any of his events. Then, he swam in the 50m back (20th overall), 100m back (21st), 100m freestyle (39th) and 200m butterfly (21st).

In Hungary, the two-time Olympian has a packed schedule. Besides the 100m back and 200m fly, he will compete in the 50m and 200m back and 100m fly.

Team-mate Joseph Schooling, who finished fifth in the 50m fly final on Monday, will next compete in the 100m freestyle (Wednesday) and 100m fly (Friday), his pet event in which he won Olympic gold last year. The 22-year-old has withdrawn from the 200m fly to focus on his remaining events.