SINGAPORE - National swimmer Joseph Schooling clocked 53.40 seconds in the preliminaries of the men's 100m butterfly event at the Longhorn Elite Invite, making the final alongside Michael Phelps.

The 20-year-old Singaporean qualified for the final third fastest, behind Americans David Nolan (53.24sec) and Phelps (53.25sec). The final is slated for early Saturday morning (Friday evening, US time) at the University of Texas' swimming arena in Austin.

The meet features some of America's top swimming talents and is a final tune-up before the US Olympic trials in Nebraska at the end of the month.

Schooling is seeded second for the event in the meet, with his world championships bronze-winning time of 50.96sec putting him just behind Phelps' seeded time of 50.45sec.

Phelps, the most decorated Olympian in history with 18 gold medals, holds the world record in this event (49.82sec), clocked in 2009 in the era of the supersuits that are now banned.

Schooling is also entered in the 200m fly.

Over at the Indianopolis Arena Pro Swim, where several Singapore nationa lswimmers are competing, Quah Zheng Wen also first for the 100m fly and 200m freestyle finals.

He clocked 52.89sec in the 100m fly, and 1min 49.48 in the 200m free.