Malaysian Welson Sim and Vietnamese Lam Quang Nhat, both 18, broke two records each in the opening day of the Southeast Asia Age-Groups Swimming Championships yesterday.

Vietnamese swimmer Tran Duy Khoi won three gold medals in the men's 16-18 year old category.

Juniors swimmers from Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and Viet Nam smashed 15 records on the first day at Da Nang Swimming Club.

Singapore finished the day with 11 gold, Viet Nam won 10 golds, and Indonesia had seven gold.

Welson finished first in the boy's 400m freestyle, 16-18 age group, in 3 minute 54.97 seconds and broke his own record of 4:0.45 set at the championship last year.

Vietnamese Nhat also surpassed the record with 3: 58.09, but finished second.

In the 1,500m freestyle, Welson and Nhat once again broke the old record set by Welson last year.

The 18-year-old Malaysian clocked the long range event in 15:35.66 to win gold and record holder, while Nhat finished with a time in 15:48.05sec.

The old record was 15:57.51.

Vietnamese Nguyen Huy Hoang set up a new record in the 400m freestyle of boy's 14-15 age group, with a time in 4:01.01, surpassing the old record (4:04.88) set by Vietnamese Tran Duy Khoi in 2012.

Khoi,18, from HCM City, set a time of 2:06.06 in the 200m individual medley of the boy's 16-18 age group, for gold and a record.

In the boy's 400m freestyle, under-13 age group, Vietnamese Nguyen Huu Kim Son, Eu Jin Jonathan Tan and Jun Wei Glen Lim from Singapore, all broke the old record.

However, Son, who finished in a time of 4:11.52 surpassing the old record of 4:11.04 set by Thailand's Sarittsi Wong, was the gold medalist.

Kornkarnjana Sapianchai was the first girl breaking a record in the championship when she swam the girl's 100m butterfly, 16-18 group, in 1:01.94. Her time surpassed the old record (1:01.95) set by Vietnamese Nguyen Thi Kim Tuyen in 2011.

Viet Nam's Nguyen Diep Phuong Tram, 14, shaved 10 hundredths of a second off the old record to win gold in the girl's 100m butterfly of 14-15 group.

VNS