hm! joseph schooling isn’t doing too shabbily at the world championships in kazan! he finalled in the 50m fly (came in 7th) setting a new asian record (how often does one see an asian record that isn’t set by either the japanese or the chinese?!), and he’s through to the semifinals in the 200fly the last time i looked. i don’t imagine he’s going to go through to the finals of the 200fly, but who knows, he just might, one never ceases to be surprised… on sunday i was looking at the semifinal start list for the 50fly, ticking off the names of the superstars of world swimming, thinking no way this field is just too strong he can’t possibly go through, if only one or two of them weren’t swimming there would be room, and the next thing i knew i was open-mouth because he’d not only qualified he’d made another impressive time dip. not that the 200fly is his best event anyway, we’ll see on saturday for the 100 fly.
the only trouble is that i think he has been wildly overhyped in southeast asia (over-the-top press coverage (some of it quite cringeworthy) which i suspect is brewing unrealistic expectations at home) but his achievements at international meets, which i think are bloody fabulous given the quality field and the times he is clocking, have to be justified and explained away by his coach to the singapore public as if they were poor showings to be apologised for (and national apologies are so awfully asian.) context, people, context!
**update: he finished 10th in the semifinals, the time was way off his personal best. another surprise, tyler clary, who’d gone in as the sixth seed, did not qualify either.
Best of the Transparent Hummingbird