Games-Schooling too classy for rivals at SEA Games

By Julian Linden SINGAPORE, June 7 (Reuters) - Joseph Schooling, Singapore's best prospect to win an Olympic medal in swimming, made a flying start to his campaign to dominate the Southeast Asian Games on Sunday. The 19-year-old won gold medals in the first two of the nine events he has entered at the region's biggest multi-sports event, but this is just the start. Schooling will have to face much tougher opposition if he is to fulfil his dream of becoming Singapore's first Olympic swimming medallist but the teenager is showing all the right signs. He won the 100 metres freestyle on Sunday and swam the lead-off leg in Singapore's 4x200m freestyle relay. In both events, he won the gold with deceptive ease but the measure of a swimmer is not decided by margin but by the clock. And Schooling's times were good. In the 100m freestyle, he reached the wall in 48.58 seconds, smashing the SEA Games record, and, more significantly, charging up the world rankings. His time was the 15th best in the world this year and would have earned him a place in the semi-finals at both the last Olympics and last world championships. His lead-off time in the 200m was also impressive, 1:47.79, again good enough for the semis at the last big global meets. But freestyle is not Schooling's best stroke. He focuses his attention on butterfly. He won a silver medal in the 100m butterfly at last year's Commonwealth Games behind South Africa's Olympic champion Chad le Clos. He became the first Singaporean man in 32 years to win a gold medal in swimming at the Asian Games with victory in the 100m butterfly at Incheon. As the biggest fish in a small pond, Schooling is already a major sporting celebrity in Singapore because of his feats in the pool. With Singapore hosting the SEA Games, his popularity is soaring to new heights every time he dives in the pool -- something he is not used to because he has spent the last seven years living and training in the United States, where he has a much lower profile. For Schooling's Spanish coach Sergio Lopez, the SEA Games is an important part of the learning process, a chance to perform in his homeland while getting a taste for the high expectations being placed on him. "He is excited about it. He has grown, he has matured, he is bigger, he is stronger," Lopez told reporters. "He wanted to make a statement for himself and everyone. He is so proud to be Singaporean and thankful for everything that the country has done for him." (Editing by Ed Osmond)