Swimming: Quah Zheng Wen wins 100-yard butterfly at Pac-12 championships

Quah Zheng Wen, a third-year student at the University of California, Berkeley, finished eighth in the 100-yard backstroke final on March 9 in 47.06sec. PHOTO: INSTAGRAM/ZHENGGGG

SINGAPORE - Singapore's Quah Zheng Wen won the men's 100-yard butterfly in 45.13 seconds at the Pac-12 Swimming and Diving Championships in Washington on Friday (March 8, US time).

The 22-year-old, a third-year student at the University of California, Berkeley, also met the 'A' cut of 45.24sec for the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I Swimming and Diving Championships later in March.

He was eighth in the 100-yard backstroke final on the same day in 47.06sec, slower than his 46.41sec in the preliminary rounds.

On Wednesday, Quah, Andrew Seliskar, Trenton Julian and Mike Thomas won the 800-yard freestyle relay in 6min 10.94sec, breaking the championship record of 6:12.07 set in 2017.

He clinched a second relay gold the next day, winning the 200-yard free in 1:16.43 with Pawel Sendyk, Ryan Hoffer and Michael Jensen.

Quah has been pencilled in for the 100-yard free and the 200-yard fly, which he won last year in season-best of 1:40.24.

The Pac-12 championships is one of the Cal Bears' meets in the lead-up to the March 27-30 NCAA Div I championships in Austin, Texas.

At his NCAA debut in 2017, Quah was second in the 200-yard butterfly and fifth in the 100-yard fly. He finished sixth in the 200-yard fly last year.

Singapore Swimming Association technical director Sonya Porter said: "It's great to see Zheng Wen performing well for Cal at the Pac-12s.

"We look forward to seeing his performances continue into the NCAAs in a few weeks."

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