Coach says Jo on target if he stays consistent in training

Singapore swimming's golden boy Joseph Schooling still has the "love and passion to race for Singapore" and national head coach Gary Tan believes the 2016 Olympic champion can regain his speed in the 100m butterfly again if he maintains consistency in training.

This was Tan's assessment yesterday at the conclusion of the 52nd SNAG Major Games Qualifier, a qualifying event for this September's Asian Games and the July 23-Aug 8 Commonwealth Games.

At the meet, which was Schooling's first competitive outing since last year's delayed Tokyo Olympics, the 26-year-old met the qualifying times for both Games in the 50m and 100m butterfly.

In the men's 100m fly final on Thursday, he clocked 52.09 seconds - his fastest time in his pet event in over two years.

Tan said: "He's definitely maturing in every single conversation that we've had... approaching things in a much more purposeful manner, not to say before he wasn't. He still has that love and passion to race for Singapore."

The coach believes that with consistency in Schooling's training, he will be able to progress and hopefully move closer to clocking his best times in his events.

Schooling's gold-medal time of 50.39sec in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 remains his quickest in the 100m fly. Tan said: "His targets are still clear - he wants to get back to a 50 (seconds result) - that has always been in his horizon so he's definitely encouraged by the results that he's had over this meet."

Schooling, who won the 2018 Asian Games 100m fly gold in 51.04sec, could find himself back on the podium at the Asiad in Hangzhou if he is able to go below 51 seconds. Regional rivals Naoki Mizunuma (50.86sec) and Katsuhiro Matsumoto (51.18sec) of Japan own the quickest times this year.

The final day of racing at the OCBC Aquatic Centre also saw Jonathan Tan, Mikkel Lee and Teong Tzen Wei going under the Asian Games qualifying time of 22.59sec in the 50m freestyle. Schooling was initially pencilled in for the event but did not race in the final because his focus was on qualifying for the fly events.

A total of 12 swimmers met the qualifying times for the Asian Games, while five got 'A' cuts for the Commonwealth Games.

Tan was pleased, noting the "depth coming through" in the squad. The 39-year-old was satisfied by how swimmers serving their national service like Schooling, Quah Zheng Wen and Jonathan performed, and also highlighted the efforts of Teong, who has established himself as one of the country's top butterfly swimmers. Tan also lauded the performances of veterans Quah Ting Wen and Amanda Lim, who both clocked 'A' times at the meet.

He said: "It's good to see some depth coming through - look at the fly events, the girls' freestyle, we're having more younger kids coming through as well... it's starting to look like there's a brighter light at the end of the tunnel."