Vietnam's Nguyen Thi Anh Vien in
action during the girls' Group 1
(16-18 years) 200m breaststroke
event at the 37th Southeast
Asian Age Group Swimming
Championships. Picture: BT/Yee
Chun Leong
Singapore were crowned champions of the 37th Southeast Asian Age Group Swimming Championships after ending the three-day competition with 29 gold, 24 silver, 25 bronze medals and nine SEA AG records yesterday.
Thailand followed closely behind in the seven-country table with 28 gold, 40 silver and 24 bronze medals, while Malaysia were third with their total of 24 gold, 18 silver and 15 bronze medals at the Aquatics Centre of the Hassanal Bolkiah National Sports Complex in Berakas.
Singapore conquered Group 3 (13 years and under) after Darren Chua finished as the best boy with five gold and three silver medals while Tan Jing-E was the best girl after a clean sweep of seven golds.
Vernon Jeau Zhi Lee of Malaysia won the best boy award for Group 1 (16-18 years) with his haul of two gold and two silver medals.
Vietnam's Nguyen Thi Anh Vien claimed the best girl award for Group 1 after her haul of 11 gold and two silver medals, which included seven SEA AG records.
Over in Group 2 (14-15 years), Supakrid Pananuratana of Thailand was the best boy with five gold and one silver medals while Filipino Catherine Bondad was the best girl with two gold, two silver and two bronze medals.
National swim coach Eric Landa was hoping for a medal but is looking on the bright side of things.
"As much as we wanted to earn a medal for Brunei, realistically we have to admit that the other teams are too strong this year for us to pull this off," said Landa.
"We competed here with nine swimmers. We selected them based on easier selection conditions and it is good to see people like Ashley Chai (11) and Haziq Samil (12) enjoying their first competition representing Brunei here.
"If this was overseas probably they wouldn't have had that chance since unfortunately competitions like these are costly and we rely on government funding.
"In that regards, it was good for more swimmers to see and taste what the SEA AG swimming level is all about,"continued the Dutchman.
Three national open records and three age group records were set in yesterday's final day.
Nur Hamizah Ahmad set a new open and age group record after completing the girls' Group 1 50m backstroke with a time of 32.95 seconds, breaking her old time of 33s set last June.
Ashley Chai managed a new age group record in the girls Group 3 50m backstroke after coming in at 34.53s. It bettered her old time of 36.41s set in April earlier this year.
Over in the boys' Group 1 100m freestyle, Christian Nikles set a new age group record with a time of 55.77s. His previous best was 56.29s from April as well.
The other two open records were from the boys' (mixed age groups) 4x100m medley relay with a time of 4:23.90 and the girls' (mixed age groups) 4x100m freestyle relay with a time of 5:11.52.
