JOSCELIN Yeo, the hometown sweetheart of the 17th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Singapore, continued her record-breaking splash yesterday by winning the women's 50 metres freestyle in 26.93 seconds.
The 14-year-old Singaporean set a SEA Games record as she collected her ninth gold medal of the swimming competition. The performance gave Yeo a perfect nine golds in nine tries, and also inscribed her name in the SEA Games record book for the sixth time this week.
The silver went to Thailand's Thunyalux Sakulkong in 27:43 while Marie Joe Ong of the Philippines claimed the bronze with a time of 27:78.
In other SEA Games action, Malaysian long distance runner Ramachandran Murusamy set a Games record in the men's 10,000 metres. The 27-year-old bank clerk from the southern state of Johor clocked 30:05.09, breaking the old record of 30:07.72 set by Indonesia's Eduard Nabunome in 1991.
The Thai women's relay team set a Games record in winning the 4 ? 100 metres in 44.65. The sprint quartet of Savitree Srichure, Dokjun Dokdung, Ratjai Siripet and Naparat Suajongdrue shaved 0.3 seconds off their previous Games record, set in Manila in 1991.
Although 32 SEA Games records had been shattered so far, only one has been good enough to break an Asian Games record. That distinction belongs to the Philippines' runner Lydia de Vega-Mercado, whose 23.37-second performance in the women's 200 metres onWednesday not only bettered her own 12-year-old SEA Games record (23.54), but broke the Asian Games mark of 23.42 set by China's Han Qing, in Beijing in 1990.