Swimming: Joseph Schooling seventh in 200m fly at Austin meet
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Joseph Schooling in action at the 2015 SEA Games in Singapore.
PHOTO: ST FILE
May Chen
SINGAPORE - With the focus clearly now on excelling in his pet 100m butterfly, Joseph Schooling clocked a timing far from his best on Monday morning (Sunday evening US time) in the 200m butterfly event at the Longhorns Elite Invite.
His time of 2min 2.31sec gave him a seventh-place finish. The time is far from his personal best and national record of 1:55.73, posted at the SEA Games last year.
The 20-year-old Singaporean, however, did cap his meet, held at the University of Texas where he is a sophomore,with a confidence-boosting win over Michael Phelps in the 100m fly on Saturday morning.
He finished first in 51.58sec, a time that was the seventh-fastest in the world this year. Phelps, the greatest Olympian of all time with 18 gold medals, was second in 51.58sec while Schooling's Texas team-mate Jack Conger was third with 51.72sec.
Schooling will join his national team-mates in Florida next for a training camp as part of his final preparations for the Aug 5-21 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. His recent performances, which includes a historic bronze medal at last year's world championships, has him tipped to perform at the Rio Games.
