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The Singapore men's 4x100m freestyle relay team was disqualified from the race at the SEA Games on Saturday (May 14).

Won the race

The quartet, consisting of Mikkel Lee, Jonathan Tan, Quah Zheng Wen and Joseph Schooling, completed the race in 3:17.19 -- a time that placed them first, and ahead of Malaysia and Vietnam, according to The Straits Times.

Their time would have meant that Singapore defended their title, which the country has won consecutively since the 2001 Games.

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

Malaysia and Philippines were also disqualified. Vietnam took the gold, followed by Indonesia and Thailand.

Disqualified due to fractionally early start

CNA reported that the disqualification was due to a fractionally early start by a swimmer.

National head coach Gary Tan appeared to have taken the disqualification in his stride.

''Kudos to the boys, no fault of anybody's," he said.

''I think this is something that happens in a competitive environment and it just goes to show our boys are hungry to win that medal. We'll turn something that was bad today into something good hopefully in the next few days."

Tan said that he believes the disqualification was "based off a technicality", adding that "there have been a lot of problems with what's been happening technically on the ground".

Schooling will also be defending his 100m butterfly title at the Vietnam SEA Games.

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Top image by Andy Chua/SportSG.