Quah: I'll definitely be better in the 200m fly
Singapore swimmer finishes 18th in men's 100m back at Worlds and misses out on semi-final place
Singapore swimmer Quah Zheng Wen failed to make the semi-finals of the men's 100m backstroke at the Fina World Championships, after clocking 54.68 seconds in his heat on Monday (July 24).
The 20-year-old UC Berkeley undergraduate was 18th overall from the heats, with the top 16 progressing to the semi-finals tonight (Singapore time).
Russia's Kliment Kolesnikov was the last qualifier with 54.51sec, while China's Xu Jiayu topped the heats with 52.77sec.
Quah told the media after his race that he had been focusing more on butterfly than the backstroke in recent times, but acknowledged that he didn't "go out hard enough, with enough speed".
"This meet is the first one, coming out of the short-course meets (in the US), which I have shaved and tapered for, so that is always kind of hard," said Quah, whose national record in this event stands at 54.03sec.
"All in all, I think I put together the swim as well as I could; I felt pretty good in the water and I think it's just a matter of how much I have been swimming backstroke for the past few months."
The Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) graduate added that he got his first-race jitters out of the way with this race, and would look forward to the 200m butterfly heats on Tuesday.
Quah considers this upcoming event his best chance of making a final at the Worlds, having finished 10th in this event at the Rio Olympics last year.
He said: "I think it's just bad luck that for the past few meets, the 100m back has always been the first one, sort of the ice breaker.
"It's always hard for me in the 100m back, but for sure, I think the 200m fly is my focus, my best chance (of making a final).
"I am definitely going to be better tomorrow. I will put it (the 100m back heats) behind me and see what I can do in the 200m fly tomorrow."
Quah's Singapore teammate Joseph Schooling was not involved in the heats this afternoon, but will race in the men's 50m fly tonight.
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