Teong Tzen Wei sets 50m fly national record in World C’ships heats, finishes 7th in final

SINGAPORE – Teong Tzen Wei fell short in his bid for Singapore’s first medal at the world short-course swimming championships on Dec 11, though he still had reason to cheer with a national mark in the 50m butterfly.

Competing in Budapest, Hungary, the 27-year-old clocked 21.97sec during the Dec 10 heats to shave 0.01sec off his previous record set at the World Aquatics Swimming World Cup on Nov 2. His new mark is also just one-hundredth of a second off China’s Sun Jiajun’s Asian record of 21.96.

In the semi-finals, he was fifth fastest in 22.04sec, while Switzerland’s Noe Ponti took 0.07sec off his previous world record to 21.43sec. The Singaporean eventually finished seventh in the final in 22.11sec.

The 23-year-old Ponti won the gold in a blistering 21.32 seconds to lower his world mark for the second time in a day.

Canadian Ilya Kharun took silver in a new Americas record of 21.67sec, while Dutchman Nyls Korstanje rounded up the podium at the Duna Arena in 21.68sec.

Teong, who had the fastest reaction time of 0.58sec and was third at the turn, said: “It was a really fast final. I’m happy to be up there racing with the best in the world.

“I had one of my best splits going out for the first 25m but I can do better on the second 25m by working on my underwater and swimming portion. Hopefully, I can learn from this race and do better the next time.”

National Training Centre lead coach Gustavo Schirru noted that the medallists had all gone under Brazilian Nicholas Santos’ 2018 world record of 21.75sec. He said: “For Teong to make the final and arrive with the chance to fight for a medal was really good and important for him.

“The level of this event has changed drastically, and we need to keep up, push more and get faster than we already are. We are already working on it, and need to get more consistent and comfortable with the changes that we made.”

In 2022, Teong was the first Singaporean to qualify for the final at the short-course world championships. He also held the then 50m fly Asian record of 22.01sec, which he clocked both as the joint-fastest qualifier from the heats and fourth-fastest finisher in the final.

He will now turn his attention to the 100m butterfly heats on Dec 13, having lowered his own national record to 49.37sec when he claimed bronze at the World Cup in Singapore on Oct 31.

Teong is one of six Singaporeans, alongside Ardi Azman, Zackery Tay, Gan Ching Hwee, Yeo Chiok Sze and Nicholle Toh, who are competing at the Dec 10-15 championships.

In the other completed events, Ardi clocked two personal bests when he placed 40th in the men’s 200m individual medley heats (2:01.41) and 46th in the 100m freestyle heats (48.57). He was 34th in the 200m butterfly in 1:59.24.

Toh was 15th in the women’s 200m butterfly heats in 2:08.99, 33rd in the 50m butterfly heats (26.79), and 44th in the 100m freestyle heats (55.67).

Schirru said that while Teong is gunning for the finals and a medal, the trajectory varies for the different swimmers who are at different stages of their career.

For the younger athletes, he added, the experience to train in the same pool with the world’s best swimmers will help them “get more comfortable, more confident and more work under their belts before we try something bigger” as they attempt to qualify for the 2028 Olympics.

Gan had two national records, first when she finished 14th overall in the women’s 400m freestyle heats in 4min 4.17sec on Dec 10, cutting more than three seconds off her old mark of 4:07.50 from the 2022 Swimming World Cup.

A day later, she eclipsed her own mark of 8:22.91 with 8:18.85 to place eighth overall in the 800m freestyle which was won by Australian Lani Pallister, who set a new championship record of 8:01.95.