Silver lining for Teong

Fridays are fun, for most people. It marks the end of the week for students and many working adults.

For Singapore swimmer Teong Tzen Wei however, Fridays are among his most demanding days. It is the day he had one hard session of training added to his already tough schedule.

But the extra work paid off. On Saturday, Teong became only the third Singapore swimmer to claim a medal at the Commonwealth Games after former Olympic champion Joseph Schooling and para-athlete Toh Wei Soong.

Teong clocked 23.21 seconds to win the 50m butterfly silver - Singapore's first medal at the Birmingham Games - for the biggest win of his swimming career.

The gold went to England's Ben Proud in a Games record of 22.81sec, while New Zealand's Cameron Gray (23.27) took the bronze.

Teong's coach, National Training Centre assistant coach Gustavo Schirru, explained that the aim of the additional session was to help the swimmer get used to handling the format of the competition better.

"This way, we could have three hard sessions in a row like he faces here - so heats, semi-finals, then finals. We tried to simulate that as much as possible and we do this at least two times a week so he passes through this scenario - going all out in the morning and needing to go all out in the afternoon and the next day again.

"This allowed his body to adapt to this kind of situation. He also learnt what he needed to do to recover from two sessions hard in the same day to respond well and fight the guys on the third day."

Teong has had a sensational season so far. At the Hanoi SEA Games in May, he became the first South-east Asian man to go under 22 seconds in the 50m freestyle en route to winning the gold.

A month later, he qualified for the 50m fly final at the Fina World Championships in a 23.03sec personal best, making him just the third Singaporean man to make a final at the world meet.

Schirru noted that Teong had benefited from his experience in Budapest (he was eighth in 23.29sec in the final), observing that the swimmer's mindset in Birmingham was one of, "I know what I'm doing because I already did this" and that he was "a little bit more mature" in this event.

Indeed, the swimmer's calmness and confidence were clear to see. Even after touching the wall, there were no boisterous roars at the Sandwell Aquatic Centre, as he turned to congratulate Proud in the next lane but he did flash a cheeky grin and victory sign for the cameras.

It was a contemplative Teong who showed up at the mixed zone minutes later.

All the 24-year-old would offer was: "Everyone's here to win. I'm happy with silver but I think I can go faster and better next time so I want to go and see and look back and learn how I can improve my racing."

After a quick start, he had been neck and neck with Proud, 27, for a good part of the one-lap race, but lost out in the final 20m.

He said: "0.4sec is quite far (from Proud's time) but it's nice to race with all the best sprinters in the world.

"It was just the last few strokes that he held it better than me so I just have to go back to the drawing board to see how I can change it and come back maybe in four years."

But for now, his focus will be on the men's 100m fly today and the 50m freestyle tomorrow.