Schooling disqualified from a race for first time after false start

A slight jerk turned into a hard lesson learnt for national swimmer Joseph Schooling, who was "too excited" during the 50m butterfly final of the Singapore National Swimming Championships last night.

While on the starting blocks at the OCBC Aquatic Centre, the 24-year-old jerked himself forward just before the start buzzer sounded.

He realised his mistake after diving into the pool, went on to finish second in 24.01sec, but was disqualified from a race for the first time due to a false start.

"It's my fault. It's my job to listen to the starter and I was too excited for the race. I wanted to get a good start, (a) good reaction time, because in the 50m, everything counts," he said.

"I still went 24sec flat, I didn't give up and kept going. I'm happy with where my mind was at, to just keep going and not worry. You can only take positives from that, I'm not going to dwell on the negatives."

The Olympic 100m butterfly champion was all smiles after the race and was seen laughing with Teong Tzen Wei, who finished first in 23.82sec.

Teong, 22, admitted that he was "thrown off" by Schooling's jerk at the start.

He said: "I'm sad that we didn't get a proper race. It's always fun to race across equal fields, so I look forward to racing with him again."

Schooling, who won the earlier 100m freestyle final in 49.16sec, added: "It's something to take back going into my next races, to chill out a little bit.

"It's good that I came out smiling. I'm not going to get mad; I would've gotten mad a few years ago, but it's a learning experience."

Schooling has another five individual events lined up at the meet as he prepares for next month's world championships in Gwangju, South Korea.

Meanwhile, four national records were rewritten yesterday.

In the women's 100m freestyle, Quah Ting Wen broke her own national record set in March.

In the morning's heats, sheclocked 54.62sec, shaving 0.2sec off her timing set three months ago, before finishing first in the evening's final in 54.67sec.

But she was still not satisfied.

"One of my biggest flaws is that I can never be 100 per cent happy," she said.

"I think I did everything better (in the final), but my first 50m was 0.2sec too slow."

Similarly, Maximillian Ang knew that he could have performed better in the 200m breaststroke, despite lowering his own national record of 2min 15.11sec to 2:14.32 during the morning's heats.

The second-year Republic Polytechnic student won the evening's final but was 0.1sec slower.

Ang, 18, met the "B" cut for next month's world championships, but revealed that he might not compete as "going to the World Juniors would be a better option" for him.

Glen Lim, 17, clocked 8:09.61 in the 800m freestyle to better his 8:10.33 mark set in March.

In the women's 200m breaststroke, Christie Chue, 18, broke a 12-year-old record when she lowered Nicolette Teo's time of 2:31.96 by clocking 2:31.47 in last night's final.