Watch out Tokyo, because Joseph Schooling is coming for your sushi.

The Singapore swimmer joked last night about eating the Japanese dish when he travels to the capital for the 2020 Olympics, but there was also relief and joy after his 100m butterfly gold-winning time of 51.84 seconds at the SEA Games earned him a spot at next year's Olympiad.

Back in the New Clark City Aquatics Centre pool a day after losing his 50m fly crown to teammate Teong Tzen Wei, 24-year-old Schooling silenced his critics with a lung-busting swim in the two-lap event, finishing just 0.03sec ahead of compatriot Quah Zheng Wen. The win saw him earning his fourth consecutive SEA Games gold in the event since 2013.

Quah, who clocked the fastest qualifying time (52.18sec) in the heats, had to settle for silver in 51.87sec, while Vietnam's Paul Le Nguyen took the bronze in 53.89sec. This was also the second time this meet that Quah had gone below the Olympic A mark, having done so in the 100m backstroke on Wednesday.

Schooling said yesterday: "It's always fun to race each other, we haven't done that in a while. I don't think I would have gone as fast as I did if I didn't have this guy next to me.

"Kudos to him, he's had the best meet out of all of us so far, best time in almost every race he swam today. I knew I had to bring it to him and I could have very easily been out-touched by him."

The Olympic champion admitted that he had "some doubts" ahead of the race, but added: "I swim for myself and the people around me and people who supported me... you can't let anyone else outside that circle dictate how you think or feel.

"I've got nothing to prove, I prove to myself, that's it."

Quah, who also bettered his personal best from 2016, said: " It's always fun racing Jo as I haven't raced him in a while. Stepping up on the blocks together was really fun and we did a good job pushing each other to get that A cut, so I'm really stoked for that."

While both have earned tickets to Tokyo, Schooling's time of 51.84sec is some way off his 2016 Olympic winning time of 50.39sec. It is also considerably slower than the world record (49.50sec) set by American Caeleb Dressel at this year's Fina World Championships in Gwangju, South Korea.

With the pressure of qualifying off, Schooling added: "The most important thing was to get that (Olympic) A cut. Now we have a seven-month period, we've got some time and I'm happy to be able to accomplish what I set out to do today."

National head coach and performance director Stephan Widmer called last night's race a "great result and outcome" for Schooling.

He added: "He can now prepare for the Olympics... the gold medal is a plus, he likes winning and they're very competitive people.

"Very essential steps have been taken but it's still a long way, we have to be honest about that.

"But the most important thing talking about the Olympics is there is no result on the scoreboard, no one has won a medal at the Olympics, so it's anyone's chance."

Last night's action in Clark saw another two golds from the 22-year-old Quah, who finished first in the men's 200m backstroke in a meet record of 2min 00.06sec, and the men's 4x100m freestyle.

The relay quartet of Darren Chua, Jonathan Tan, Quah and Schooling won in a meet record of 3:16.82.