Semi-finals, new personal best for Quah Zheng Wen
Singapore swimmer Quah Zheng Wen clocked a new personal best of 1min 56.01sec and finished third in his men's 200m butterfly heats at the Rio Olympics on Tuesday morning (Aug 9).
He qualified for the semi-finals later this morning (Aug 9) after placing 10th among the 29 swimmers across all the heats.
Only the top 16 athletes will make the semi-finals, with the top eight from that race making the finals on Wednesday (Aug 10).
However, Quah's timing is still slower than Joseph Schooling's national mark of 1:55.73, clocked at the South-east Asia Games in Singapore last year.
Quah, 19, was swimming in the second of four heats, alongside 2012 Olympic champion Chad le Clos of South Africa, as well as American Tom Shields.
The Singaporean started slowly and was near the back of the field in the first two laps, but powered further up in the final two laps.
Race winner le Clos even turned his head sideways towards the end of the race to see where Quah was.
Hungary's Tamas Kenderesi topped the heats overall with 1:54.73, while teammate Laszlo Cseh was second, after winning Heat 4 with 1:55.14.
Le Clos was third overall, while American Michael Phelps, who has already won 19 career Olympic golds, was fifth in the preliminary round after finishing third in Heat 3 with 1:55.73.
Japan's Masato Sakai was the top-placed Asian in the event, placing sixth overall with 1:55.77.
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