Quah sets new national mark in 200m back, but fails to make the semi-finals

Singapore swimmer Quah Zheng Wen set a new men's 200m backstroke national record of 1 minute 59.49 seconds in the heats at the Fina World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, on Thursday (July 27).

The 20-year-old's old national mark of 2:00.45 was set at the Singapore National Swimming Championships in June 2017.

The 2012 and 2016 Olympian, who considers himself more of a butterfly swimmer in recent years, won his heat, followed by Serbia's Vuk Celic (2:00.27) and Switzerland's Nils Liess (2:00.96).

However, he did not make the semi-finals tonight, after placing 24th overall from five heats. Only the top 16 made it to the next round.

After his race, he said: "I'm pretty pleased with a new best time and new national record; definitely there are things that can be improved but I am pretty happy considering I have not been swimming that much backstroke (in recent times).

"This has been a race that I have never really swam at a high level since 2012 in London (for the Olympics), so it was pretty cool, just gearing up for the 100m butterfly tomorrow.

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"It was pretty nice just doing a best time."

American Ryan Murphy, Quah's former teammate at UC Berkeley, topped the heats with 1:56.11, followed by Hungary's Peter Bernek (1:56.53) and Lithuania's Danas Rapsys (1:56.67).