No excuses, says Quah Zheng Wen, after he misses another s-final
A straight-talking Quah Zheng Wen says he will not be making excuses for his performances at the Olympics.
The Singaporean swimmer missed the cut for the 200m butterfly semi-finals at the Tokyo Games, after clocking 1min 56.42sec in the heats last night.
The effort was off his personal best of 1:56.01 which he clocked in the heats at the 2016 Rio Games.
Quah said he was "very disappointed" with his time, even though he noted this was his fastest time in the event since Rio.
"It has been a little bit of a journey figuring out how to train and practise for this race," he said.
"But I'm definitely (heading) in the right direction and I think I've just got to keep moving forward. I just wish things could have gone better."
He started strongly in Heat 2 and led for more than three-quarters of the race but faded towards the end, eventually finishing behind Norway's Tomoe Hvas (1:56.30) but ahead of Ireland's Brendan Hyland (1:57.09).
Quah's time meant he was 22nd out of 38 swimmers and missed out on this morning's semi-finals, with only the top 16 qualifying.
He had also 22nd in the heats for the 100m backstroke on Sunday. Then, he also admitted that he "faded" in the final stretch of the race.
Asked whether he could explain why he has struggled towards the end of his races, Quah said: "I don't really know, I've been trying to figure that out for a while now.
"Maybe it's something to do with my training, or something I could be doing better… I don't know. If I could tell you, I would."
He dismissed any suggestion that he was saving a little bit of himself for Thursday's 100m fly heats, but said the lack of rest time between his two heats did not help.
"This was a better race for me just because I'm better at this event, but obviously with that comes more expectation and greater disappointment as well," he said.
"I think I moved through these two days the best I could.
"I had a little less rest between the two races than I would have liked, but again, that's something out of my control.
"I'm not going to make any excuses."
He is pencilled for another event, the 100m fly, and will race in the heats with teammate and defending champion Joseph Schooling.
Schooling begins his Olympic campaign in the 100m freestyle heats tonight.
Quah's sister Ting Wen, who is the only other Singaporean swimmer in Tokyo, will compete in the women's 100m and 50m free heats tomorrow and Friday respectively.
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