Tag Archives: Quah Zheng Wen

Singapore marathoner Soh Rui Yong uploaded an open letter to MINDEF onto his Instagram account. This open letter comes after Joseph Schooling failed to make it to the finals in both 100m freestyle and his pet event, 100m butterfly. He wrote, “This is the chance for you to score a HUGE PR …

Unfortunately, our second representative in the FINA World Championships, Quah Zheng Wen, finished in 18th place out of 46 competitors for the 100m backstroke event, and misses out on the semi-finals. He clocked a time of 54.68s in his heat.

On a more personal note, for all naysayers and the keyboard warriors on those acidic anonymous forums, for a brief moment I wish I just what their names are and what they look like, and perhaps a dissection of every accomplishment they have ever achieved.

In case you missed it, in the wee hours of the morning, Joseph Schooling finished first in the heats for 100m Butterfly with 51.41s. He raced along his idol and the most decorated Olympian, Michael Phelps who came in second. Quah Zheng Wen came in 10th in the 100m Butterfly in an earlier heat with a personal best of 52.08s. Both our Singaporean sons made it to the semi-finals that will take place at 10.42 am local time.

"As various interviews were going on elsewhere along the line, we waited a little longer, before Quah emerged at one end, and walked past us all without breaking stride, only saying "Hi guys", before disappearing… I just wished he stood up to face questions instead of walking off. Because at this level, that is what athletes do…"

"High level talks" are underway between the Singapore Swimming Association and the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) over a possible National Service (NS) deferment for one of Singapore's national swimmers, 18 year-old Quah Zheng Wen. Quah had improved his Olympic "A" time for the 200m butterfly in the recent SEA Games, coming in at 1min 56.79secs. This earns him an automatic qualification for the upcoming Olympics to be held in Brazil.