NO 4TH GAMES FOR QUAH

He breaks local meet mark but won't join sisters in Paris; wants to go out with a bang’

- David Lee

These days, Quah Zheng Wen no longer flies into a rage as he did as a precocious teenager, but every setback still rankles with the national swimmer.

The 27-year-old emerged from the OCBC Aquatic Centre pool on June 14 with a stoic expression, even though he had touched the wall first and broken the Singapore National Swimming Championships' men's 100m butterfly meet record.

His winning time of 52.10sec was not good enough for the Paris Olympics, as he needed to meet the qualifying mark of 51.67. With the event the last qualifier for the Games, the swimmer, who was gunning for a fourth outing after London 2012, Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020, had missed the boat.

But being the fierce competitor that he is, Quah - who won his first SEA Games gold at 15 wants to end his career on his own terms and go out on a high.

He told The Straits Times: "I definitely did my best and I never stopped trying... Unfortunately, this year, it's not enough. I shoulder 100 per cent of the responsibility for my performances and whatever the outcome is, it is on me.

"I'm very disappointed and I feel like I dropped the ball with not being able to swim at the Olympics with my sisters (Ting Wen and Jing Wen), who qualified on that historic 4x100m medley relay.