KUCHING: For Andrew Goh, receiving his Sarawak Malaysia Games (Sukma) gold medal from Raja Muda of Selangor Tengku Amir Shah Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah was the icing on the cake after an outstanding day at the pool.
The Selangor swimmer broke his own national record twice - in the preliminaries and final - en route to winning the men's 50m breaststroke gold today.
He clocked 27.40 seconds in the final, erasing the 28.03s record he had set in the morning.
Melaka's Joseph Kai (29.32) won silver and Sarawak's Hector Ho (29.67) completed the podium.
Andrew was all smiles after the prize giving ceremony at the Pandelela Rinong Aquatics Centre.
"It feels amazing, I have never been in the presence of royalty before. To receive the medal from his Royal Highness is very special," said Andrew.
"My mom and my dad are up there in the stands, they are really happy and my coaches are too.
"Coming into this final, I was inspired by what I did in the 100m breaststroke on the first day.
"My game plan was to go as fast as possible, and if I break the record, I break the record."
Andrew's performance bodes well for Malaysian hopes ahead of next year's Thailand Sea Games.
His winning time in Sarawak was faster than the winning time (27.70s) clocked by Felix Viktor Iberle (Indonesia) en route to gold at last year's Phnom Penh Sea Games.
"I am aiming for a faster time and also a medal at the Sea Games next year in Thailand," added Andrew, who is currently studying at Grand Valley University in Michigan.
"I'm not going to sit on this time because I can definitely go faster than this."
Swimming records continued to tumble at Sukma as the Federal Territories also broke the games record in the men's 4x100m freestyle relay after clocking 3:25.52s to win gold.
Their time was over two seconds faster than the previous mark of 3:28.22s set by Selangor at the 2016 games which was also held in Sarawak.
Selangor (3:27.44s) won silver while Penang (3:31.44s) completed the podium.