LookAtVietnam – Vietnamese athletes dominated on the opening day of the finswimming at the SEA Games, held at Aquatics Sport Centre yesterday, December 15.

Pool winner: Nguyen Trung Kien smiles after winning a gold medal and setting a record of 38.07sec in the men’s 100m surface event. Kien and his teammates scored four golds which helped Viet Nam dominate the aquatic races at the SEA Games in Laos yesterday.

The top four finishers all surpassed the old record of 47.24 seconds set by Thai Arisa Wanteh at the 2003 SEA Games in Viet Nam. Trang, with a time of 43.58, is the new SEA Games record holder.

Just a few minutes later, Nguyen Trung Kien set another SEA Games record in the men’s 100m surface with a time of 38.07sec, 0.85sec faster than the old record set by Vietnamese Phan Luu Cam Thanh in 2003.

Vo Quang Dai swam a 39.34 to finish second, while Indonesian Adrian Sansoldi bagged the bronze.

Indonesian Priscillia Guawan powered herself to gold and a new Games record in the women’s 800m surface with a time of 7:23.53, breaking Vietnamese Nguyen Thi Hang’s 2003 record by nearly six seconds.

Vietnamese Nguyen Thi Thuong finished second and Laos’ Amdavanh Phanmybounkong came third.

The men’s and women’s 400m surface relay saw a tussle between Viet Nam, Indonesia and Thailand.

In the men’s division, the three teams all broke the existing Games record set by the Singapore team six years ago.

Clocking the fastest time of 2:36.01, Viet Nam took gold and broke their third Games record of the day.

The women’s team then bagged the fourth gold when they finished first in 3:02.31 to beat Thailand and Indonesia, who finished second and third, respectively.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News