Olympics: Singapore’s swimmer Schooling out of 200m butterfly

LONDON: Singapore’s swimmer Joseph Schooling’s Olympic debut turned out to be a disappointment.

The 17—year—old, one of the rising stars for the country, finished last in his 200—metre butterfly heats, but blamed it on a distraction.

Mr Schooling qualified for the event with his time of 1 minute, 56.67 seconds at the 2011 SEA Games.

But in London, he clocked 1 minute 59.18 seconds, and failed to make the semi—finals.

Mr Schooling attributed his poor performance to the fact that an official told him just before the race that his brand of goggles and cap were not approved.

Mr Tan Yo—Hinn, Deputy Sports Editor of TODAY, and who is in London covering the swimming competition, said: "They told ... couldn’t use it, you had to find something else, So it came (as) a shock to the teenager. It just threw him off mentally. He was left to scramble with five minutes to the biggest race of his life."

Ms Jessie Phua, Chef—de—Mission for Team Singapore at the London Olympics, told TODAY that she was very upset that this has happened. She promised that an internal investigation will be undertaken to find out exactly what happened but until then, she did not want to add anything more than that."

— CNA/de