Joseph Schooling into the finals, has Olympic gold in his sights
He sets new Asian mark and qualifies fastest for 100 fly final
One's 21, and a world championship bronze medallist who seems destined for big things.
The other's 19, striving and straining to get to the main stage.
In the men's 100m butterfly semi-finals at the Olympic Aquatics Centre this morning (Singapore time), Joseph Schooling and Quah Zheng Wen both took the plunge looking to meet their respective targets, and also do Singapore proud.
Quah went first, but the older Schooling went faster, in Heat 2, posting a time of 50.83sec to finish first, and lead the top eight that qualified for the final.
Schooling, who set a new Asian record and national mark, became the first Singapore man to qualify for an Olympic swimming final.
His dream of a gold medal is very much on, although he will be aware that swimming phenomenon Michael Phelps will be that much tougher to beat in the final (tomorrow morning, Singapore time) after a day's rest.
The United States' Phelps, who had won the 200m individual medley minutes earlier, returned to race in Heat 1 and finished second behind Hungary's Laszlo Cseh
Quah's time of 52.26 in Heat 1 was slower than the new personal best of 52.08 he set in the afternoon heats and he finished 15th out of the field of 16.
While he now plots a course for a medal mission at the Tokyo Games in 2020, Schooling is on the brink of one of the all-time achievements in Singapore history here in Rio.
No Singaporean has won Olympic gold, no local swimmer has even won a medal, and speaking moments after his win, Schooling, who still looked relaxed, said: "I'm here to win gold. I'm not talking about a medal. I want to win."
Phelps will start in Lane 2, Schooling in 4, with South Africa's Chad Le Clos, Cseh and American Tom Shields all in the field.
An entire nation will be watching, as Singapore's butterfly star goes for gold, and history.
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