SEA Games swimming: Singapore ace Joseph Schooling powers to gold in new ...

REPORTING FROM MYANMAR

Joseph Schooling moments before his gold medal-winning, SEA Games record-breaking feat in the 200m individual medley. …

Nowhere near his best, but still good enough for gold and a new Southeast Asian (SEA) Games record to boot.

Singapore swim star Joseph Schooling was on fire in his 200m individual medley event at the Wunna Theikdi arena in Myanmar, leading from start to end in a dominant performance that crushed the Games milestone by two seconds.

And even as his time of 2.00.82s left his nearest opponent trailing by three seconds, Schooling told reporters he could have been "a lot faster" than his showing that Friday evening.

"Still, the most important thing is I won," he added.

The US-based standout provided Singapore's only gold of the night after the fancied 4x100m freestyle relay women were stunned into second place by Thailand.

The quartet of Quah Ting Wen, Amanda Lim, Mylene Ong and Lynette Lim took control at the start but were overtaken by a resolute Thai team led by Natthanan Junkrajang, who swam her final leg in a blistering 55.8s.

Junkrajang's effort was one whole second faster than her gold-medal timing in the 100m freestyle just an hour earlier.

The event, re-swam after technical difficulties on Thursday, saw 27-year-old Junkrajang edge silver-medalist Quah by 0.31s while Amanda finished fourth and just 0.2s short of a medal.

Singapore also picked up two bronzes via Lynette in the 400m freestyle and Danny Yeo in the men's 100m freestyle.

Yeo was neck and neck with the front two until eventual champion Triady Fauzi Sidiq of Indonesia pulled away by a split second to set a new meet record of 49.99s.

"I tried to catch him but (Sidiq) was just too fast," admitted Yeo, a silver-medalist at the 2011 Games.

It was both a "difficult and disappointing" night, said Singapore head coach Ian Turner, but his swimmers remained confident they would retake the pool in days to come – not least of all their one ace in the pack.

"There's no doubt in my mind… we'll come back with more medals in the events tomorrow," declared Schooling.

More of the 2013 SEA Games here on Yahoo Sports

http://www.information.myanmaronlinecentre.com/sea-games-swimming-singapore-ace-joseph-schooling-powers-to-gold-in-new/