Schooling misses out on 100m free semi-finals at Worlds
Singaporean places 17th after heats, with top 16 making the semi-finals
Singapore swimmer Joseph Schooling missed out on a spot in the men's 100m freestyle semi-finals at the Fina World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, after clocking 48.86 seconds in the heats on Wednesday (July 26) afternoon (Singapore time).
The 22-year-old was fifth in his heat, won by France's Mehdy Metella (48.18sec), and placed 17th overall from 12 heats.
Only the top 16 swimmers in this event advance to the semi-finals tonight, with the last qualifier, Serbia's Velimir Stjepanovic, just 0.06 seconds quicker (48.80sec) than the Olympic 100m fly champion.
"It was a pretty rough morning, I am not going to lie," said Schooling, who clocked the current national record of 48.27sec in the heats at the Rio Olympics last year.
"Having the day off (yesterday), staying in the hotel room for 24 hours and having the first race after that, it definitely felt pretty rough."
Australia's Cameron McEvoy topped the heats with 47.97sec, followed by Metella and American Caeleb Dressel (48.26sec). Japan's Shinri Shioura was the top Asian in the heats, placing joint-fifth overall (48.46sec) alongside Brazil's Marcelo Chierighini, American Nathan Adrian and Briton Duncan Scott.
Schooling will race in the men's 100m fly heats next on Friday afternoon. If he makes it to the final, he will compete on Saturday night.
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