F

ive more ASEAN records have been broken by Indonesian swimmers at the 6th ASEAN Para Games on Saturday, with the host leading the medal hunt at the second day of the swimming competition at the Tirtamoyo Swimming pool in Surakarta (Solo), Central Java.

Of 26 golds contested in swimming in the second day, Indonesia grabbed eight, while Thailand and Vietnam each won seven.

Thailand is still at the top of the overall medal tally with 58 gold, 37 silver and 32 bronze, followed by the host with 38-43-41, Malaysia took over Vietnam’s third position with 21-17-15. Timor Leste is the only country that has not yet won a medal.

The five new Games records were set by Muhamad Samsi, Fitridmi, Rahmayana, Steven Sualang and Gusmalayanti. Muhamad Samsi clocked 34.24 seconds to break the men’s 50 meters breaststroke ID record of 37.90s previously set by Lawrence Tay Wei of Singapore.

Fitridmi clocked 49.16s to break Singaporean Charlotte Lee Ai’s women’s 50m breaststroke ID record of 58.00s. In the women’s 100m freestyle ID category, Indonesian Rahmayana clocked 01:18.51s to break the previous games record of 01:39.71s by Salakuddin Wadsana of Thailand.

In the men’s 50m backstroke S10, Steven Sualang set a new record of 32.51s eclipsing his countryman Steven Tangkilisan’s record of 33.07s. Gusmalayanti added a new record in the women’s 50m backstroke S9 by clocking 49.13s to break the previous record of 1:00.32s.

Three other golds for the host in the swimming pool were grabbed by Ilham in the men’s 50m breaststroke SB12, Pilipus Yowey in the men’s 50m breaststroke SB13 and Lamri in the men’s 50m backstroke S9.

In Friday’s swimming competition, seven records were broken by Indonesian swimmers and so far Indonesia has collected 16 gold, 11 silver and 11 bronze medals from swimming.

“It would have been better if we had not missed the gold in two other categories,” said Indonesian team coach Devi Rachyuanto referring to the failure of Max Tamaro and Maradona in the men’s 100m freestyle S13 category and men’s 100m freestyle ID category respectively.

Thailand still dominated the track and field competition at Manahan Stadium in Solo by snatching 11 out of 53 golds contested in the second day while Indonesia and Malaysia each collected five golds.

Indonesian Suyono and Losu Martin each set a new record in the men’s 100m T38 category and the men’s 100m T46 category respectively. Suyono clocked 12.53s to eclipse the record of 14.72s by Malaysian Niam Lai Heng which was set in Kuala Lumpur in 2001, while Losu clocked 11.14s to break the 2005 record of 11.83s by Winai Sunchuang of Thailand.