National swimmer Joseph Schooling to enlist for NS on Jan 3

SINGAPORE - National swimmer Joseph Schooling will enlist for National Service on Monday (Jan 3), with the 26-year-old on Sunday sharing videos of him getting his hair shaved at a salon on his Instagram account.

In September last year, Mindef announced that both Schooling and fellow national swimmer Quah Zheng Wen's long-term NS deferments had ended, following their participation in the Tokyo Olympics.

The 25-year-old Quah, a three-time Olympian, had enlisted in October last year.

Schooling and Quah's deferments began in 2014 and 2015 respectively.

They enjoyed good outings at the 2016 Rio Games, where Schooling won a historic first Olympic gold medal for Singapore in the men's 100m butterfly while also qualifying for the 100m freestyle semi-final.

Quah, meanwhile, qualified for the semi-finals of the 100m and 200m fly — placing in the top 16 for both.

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At the Tokyo Olympics in July last year, Schooling's defence of his 100m fly title crumbled after he finished last in his 100m fly heat in 53.12sec and ranked 44th out of 55 swimmers. In the 100m free, he placed 39th.

Quah finished 22nd in the 100m backstroke and 200m fly, and 34th in the 100m fly, and did not achieve any personal best.

Both had said in previous interviews after last year's Olympics that they were keen to race in several high-level competitions scheduled this year, such as the World Championships (May), Commonwealth Games (July) and Asian Games (September).

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