KUCHING: A total of 17 Malaysia Games (Sukma) records and two national records were broken at the Pandelela Aquatics Centre pool in Petra Jaya during the five days of competition.
Names like Andrew Goh of Selangor, the Federal Territories' Dhuha Zulfikry, Chong Xin Lin, Bryan Leong and Kelly Teo from Sarawak put on outstanding performances winning gold and setting new marks.
Andrew's exploits have seen him emerge as a huge shout to be named the Sukma 2024 Sportsman.
The 20-year-old's five gold medals are the second most among the men, but what's more impressive is he broke two national records and one meet record along the way.
In the 100m breaststroke, he posted a time of one minute 01.39 seconds to rewrite his own mark of 1:02.30s set at the Malaysia Open in May.
Then, two days later, he again broke his own mark in the 50m breaststroke twice by setting a time of 28.03 seconds in the morning preliminary heats to best his own mark of 28.10s set at last year's Malaysia Open.
He returned to the pool in the afternoon in the final to smash that mark by posting 27.40s.
Andrew's time of 27.40s is faster than the mark set by 2023 Phnom Penh Sea Games gold medalist Felix Viktor Iberle. The Indonesian won gold by posting a time of 27.70s.
Dhuha and Kelly stand out as the most successful swimmers in the pool winning six gold medals each.
Dhuha, at 16 years old, has a bright future ahead of him, and he showed that by breaking four meet records along the way (200m freestyle, 1,500m freestyle, 4x100m freestyle relay and 400m freestyle).
With further development, Dhuha can emerge as a serious medal contender at the Thailand Sea Games next year and the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games in 2026.
Kelly's golden haul flew under the radar as she did not break any records but her achievement is amazing nonetheless and will be rewarded with a cool RM94,250 by the Sarawak State Government under the Sarawak Sukma incentive scheme.
Overall, FT maintained their dominance in the swimming discipline by winning 16 gold medals, eight silver and seven bronze, followed by Selangor (13-19-7) and Sarawak (9-1-7).