Joseph Schooling of Singapore broke his own 100m fly national record by a fraction of a second in prelims this morning in order to qualify fifth heading into tonight’s semifinals.

At the touch Schooling was a 51.65, taking precisely 0.04 seconds off his 51.69 record that he set at the 2014 Commonwealth Games. Schooling finished second there to South African record holder Chad Le Clos.

Schooling’s national record splits

50m – 24.04

100m – 51.65 (27.61)

This is the first time in Schooling’s international career that he has made a semifinal in the 100m fly at either an Olympic Games or World Championships.

The only other time in his career that he advanced past the heats at either two meets prior to these championships was at the 2013 World Championships when he qualified to swim in the semifinals of the 200m fly. Following that swim, Schooling didn’t advance to the final.

Schooling has proved that he’s much faster in 2015. Earlier, Schooling finished 10th in the semifinals of the 200m fly falling just short of advancing to the finals.

Schooling did manage to make the final of the 50m butterfly however, setting a new Asian record in the process with a seventh place finish.

The 100m fly is gong to be Schooling’s remaining chance for a medal, although that will be tough given the time he put up this morning. With Laszlo Cseh of Hungary already under 51-seconds, Tom Shields of the USA edging towards the 51.00 mark, and plenty of other talent in the field, a podium finish will be difficult for the Singaporean swimmer.

Schooling will likely need to get into the 51-low range if he wants to keep his medal hopes alive. He’s currently in a good position to make the championship final.