SINGAPORE – The Singapore national swim team got their campaign in the Arena Pro Swim Series in Austin, in the US, off to a decent start this morning (Jan 16, Singapore time).

The Olympic qualifying meet featured 26 Olympians who have 110 medals among them including 58 gold.  

Quah Zheng Wen, 19, was Singapore's top performer this morning as he reached the A final of the 100m fly and subsequently finished eighth.

Up against a field that included 18-time Olympic gold medallist Michael Phelps, Quah timed 53.33secs, which is under the Olympics “B” qualifying time of 54.19secs. 

American Phelps won in 51.94secs, while his compatriots Tom Shields and Tim Philips came in second (52.39) and third (52.61) respectively.

Quah also went under the “B” qualifying time (50.70secs), when he recorded 50.51 in the 100m fly C Final. 

“I had pretty good execution in the races today, such as the number of strokes I had to take,” said Quah, who has already met the  “A” marks for the 100m and 200m fly, and 100m back events, in a phone interview. 

“I am not too happy with my times, but it is just a learning experience. I got some racing with the faster guys, and it has been a good eye-opener for me. 

“I learnt how to be behind for example, and then (still) be able to catch up. It is not about times now, but more about how to race. I am pretty tired now, and I have the 200m free and 200m back tomorrow, so I am going to just stick to the race plan, and not get too ahead of myself.”

Meanwhile, swimmers Amanda Lim, Quah Ting Wen, Marina Chan, Danny Yeo, Lionel Khoo, and Pang Sheng Jun, part of the 10-strong team that is on a month-long training stint in the US, also competed yesterday.

Khoo made it to the C Final of the 200m breaststroke and Pang reached the D Final of the 400m freestyle, coming in 5th(2:18.77) and 6th (3:59.10) respectively.

Joseph Schooling struggled today though after recovering from a recent high fever.

Schooling, who won a bronze in the 100m fly (50.96sec) at last August's World Championships, did not look like himself in the heats last night (Singapore time) as he finished 14th in a laboured 54.10secs.

The 20-year-old University of Texas swimmer then pulled out of this morning's B Final.

Schooling, who had a high fever on Wednesday, said he wanted to push himself to see how far he can go at this meet.

He told TODAY he was "disappointed” to pull out of the Arena  meet in the end, but did it upon UT head coach Eddie Reese's advice.

“Obviously with me not being well last week, it has affected my training, but I have no doubts in my ability and what I need to do to get to where I am and to achieve my goal,” said Schooling, who has already met the “A” marks for the 100m and 200m fly, and 100m freestyle.

"Eddie has drawn up a plan for me up to Rio and I have full confidence in him. Over the last couple of months, I feel fitter and stronger.

“I am going to continue to put in the hard yards and I am sure it will pay off.”

National coach Sergio Lopez said that while some of the times were not as fast as he and high performance manager Sonya Porter had expected, the team generally did well in their first high-level competition in a while, and are very much “on schedule” in their preparations towards the Olympics.

“For most of the kids, it has been a very positive day,” said Lopez. 

“It has been hard and intensive training for them so far, and I thought they would swim a bit faster, but they raced very well. Not everyone swam fast, but we are on schedule (towards Rio). We are going to get better as the days go by.

“The results will be seen in the time trials next month (in Singapore), and our focus is to qualify as many as we can for the Olympics and Singapore National Age-Group Championships in March.”

Lopez stressed that his charges must not be afraid to swim against the best in the world though, and should even get used to it.

"Swimming against best in the world at 9am and then later on in the finals, they can’t be afraid of that, and they are getting better at that," he said.

"They need to come out and just swim, and not think about Michael Phelps and the rest.”

The Arena Pro Swim Series (Jan 15-17) continues tonight, with the heats starting from 11pm (Singapore time). 
 

Singapore swimmers in action on day two of Arena Pro Swim Series:

Marina Chan, Amanda Lim, Quah Ting Wen (women’s 200m free, 50m free)

Lionel Khoo (men’s 50m free)

Pang Sheng Jun (men’s 400m IM, 20m free)

Quah Jing Wen (women’s 400m IM)

Quah Zheng Wen (men’s 200m free, 200m back)

Danny Yeo (men’s 200m free, 50m free