Olympic champion Joseph Schooling says he is looking forward to competing in the 200m butterfly at this year's World Championships, starting 14 July in Budapest.
The Singapore swimmer qualified for the event when he completed 200m butterfly final of Arena Pro Swim Series in Atlanta on Sunday with a timing of 1.56:45s, which was well within the qualification mark of 1:57.28s. Schooling, despite making the cut to the world meet, finished second behind Chase Kalisz, who took the gold in 1:55.94s.
Having won the gold in100m butterfly event at last year's Rio Games, Schooling had already qualified for the world meet's 50m and 100m fly and 100m freestyle events. Notably, the 21-year-old swam the 200m fly event yesterday for the first time since January 2016.
"It is good to have the 200m fly in my list of events again. The last time I did it was more than a year ago. I am pleased with my time today. I was not concerned about the placing, as the main objective was to meet the mark for World Championships," Schooling said, as quoted by Today.
In the build-up to July's World Championships, the Singaporean finished with four relay gold medals at the NCCA Championships in March. However, he failed to defend his titles in the 100m and 200m butterfly events.
Schooling concedes that there is still a lot of work that needs to be done before he can step into the pool in Budapest. Apart from the world meet, the University of Texas student will also lead Singapore's campaign at SEA Games in August this year.
"We are about 77 days away from my first event in Budapest, there is still some work to be done but i am looking forward to a busy summer," the champion swimmer added.
