Singapore's swimming national head coach Gary Tan refuted reports by the Vietnamese media claiming that national swimmer and Olympian Joseph Schooling was responsible for the national team's disqualification at the Hanoi SEA Games, according to The Straits Times (ST).

Vietnamese online newspaper VnExpress had reported that Singapore was disqualified after Schooling, who was the last swimmer in the relay, left the blocks early.

"It's not Joseph"

A report by CNA quoted Tan: "We are over it already, we've moved on. It's not Joseph, but I will just leave it as that."

"If you look at it, the team has already moved on and gone into a whole different mode of racing and coming out of this with four gold medals this evening is great and wanting a bit of the fifth gold medal, but it happens in sports," he added.

It was also reported on ST that the incident had initially affected the team.

National swimmer Mikkel Lee said: "What happened yesterday was unfortunate, but I will still choose those guys to go on the same relay ten out of ten times and I just hope we can carry this momentum despite the dip that we had yesterday."

Disqualified due to fractionally early start

The men's 4x100m freestyle relay team, which consists of Schooling, Lee, Jonathan Tan and Quah Zheng Wen, completed the race in 3:17:19 -- a time that would have placed them first.

However, the swimmers were apparently informed of their disqualification in the middle of their interview after they won the race.

The disqualification ends Singapore's winning streak in the 4x100m freestyle relays since 2001.

According to several media reports, the disqualification was due to a fractionally early start by a swimmer.

Other disqualifications

Malaysia finished second after Singapore, but was also disqualified, with Vietnam taking the gold, followed by Indonesia and Thailand.

In an AFP report, Vietnamese swim coach Phan Quang Minh Quan told state outlet VnExpress: "This is something very difficult and sensitive in sport, but the digital machine detected the violations, not human, so it's fair."

Top image by Tommy Low/SSA.