UPDATE: Teong Tzen Wei reached the final of the 50m fly event, placing third in his semi-final race on Tuesday evening.
SINGAPORE — Singapore national swimmer Teong Tzen Wei bounced back from his cannabis episode to set an Asian record in the men’s 50m butterfly at the Fina World Swimming Championships (short course) on Tuesday (Dec 13).
The 25-year-old clocked 22.01 seconds at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre, breaking the previous record of 22.19 seconds set by Japan’s Takeshi Kawamoto at the Japan National Championships (short course) two years ago.
The time was also enough for him to lead the heats ahead of world record holder Szebasztian Szabo of Hungary (22.07 seconds) and Germany’s Marius Kusch (22.19 seconds).
In Tuesday night’s semi-final, Teong qualified for Wednesday’s final in third place in 22.18 seconds, behind Trinidad and Tobago’s Dylan Carter (22.02 seconds) and Brazil’s Nicholas Santos (22.08 seconds). .
“It was a great swim for Teong. He has worked hard to get where he needs to be,” said national team coach Gary Tan of Teong’s record-breaking effort.
“The coaching staff at the National Training Center have also worked well with the sports science team to improve several aspects of his competition and the result today is a testament to their hard work.”
Brilliant form all year round
Teong has been in great form this year. At the SEA Games in Hanoi in May, he broke Joseph Schooling’s Games record in the 50m fly, clocking 23.04 seconds to break the Olympic champion’s mark by 0.02 seconds.
Then in the 50m freestyle, he became the first Southeast Asian swimmer to clock a time under 22 seconds, finishing in 21.93 seconds to erase the SEA Games mark of 22.25 seconds set by compatriot Jonathan Tan .
In June, he became only the third swimmer from Singapore to qualify for a final at the Fina World Swimming Championships (long course). A month later, he won silver at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, also becoming the third Singaporean swimmer after School and Toh Wei Soong to finish on the podium.
However, he was hit with a fine and suspension of support from the High Performance Scheme after he was found to have consumed a controlled drug, believed to be cannabis.
Swimmer Letitia Sim also had a fine outing in Melbourne, setting a Singapore national record in the women’s 200m individual medley with a time of 2min 9.82sec, breaking Quah Ting Wen’s mark of 2:12.58 set in in 2021. Sim finished 18th in the race.
Meanwhile, Maximillian Ang placed 28th in the men’s 200m individual medley after clocking 1:59.11.
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