SINGAPORE – Olympic swimming champion Joseph Schooling won the 100m freestyle title at the Hancock Prospecting Short Course Championships on Thursday (Oct 24) in 48.05sec, the fastest time clocked in a Fina-recognised event this year.
In the final, he finished ahead of Zac Incerti (48.23) and Luke Gebbie (48.84) Melbourne Sports & Aquatic Centre.
The previous mark this year was Swede Christoffer Carlsen’s 48.38sec clocked in April.
The world record is 44.94sec by Amaury Leveaux of France in 2008.
Russian Vladimir Morozov had however, clocked 46.29sec at last Sunday’s International Swimming League meet in Lewisville, United States.
The ISL is a new, breakaway US$20 million (S$27 million) competition funded by the Ukrainian billionaire and swimming fan Konstantin Grigorishin. It is not sanctioned by the sport’s governing body Fina.
Schooling’s time in the final was also a new Singapore record, bettering the 48.11sec set by Quah Zheng Wen at the 2015 Singapore National Short Course Swimming Championships.
While the performance was in the short course – instead of the traditional 50m long course format – and not in Schooling’s pet event the butterfly, it will be a confidence boost for the 24-year-old Singaporean as he prepares for the SEA Games in the Philippines.
The biennial Games is from Nov 30-Dec 11 and Schooling will lead the Republic’s charge in the pool. He won six golds at the 2017 Kuala Lumpur Games and nine titles at the 2015 edition on home soil.
Source: Read Full Article