SINGAPORE'S athletes turned out their best showing of the inaugural Asian Youth Games when they hauled in two golds and three bronzes on Day 3 of the competition.

Lynette Lim finished first in the 400m freestyle, the opening final of the five-day swimming competition at the Singapore Sports School.

The California-based swimmer's 4min 14.25sec was more than seven seconds quicker than silver medallist Benjaporn Sriphanomthorn of Thailand.

Lynette's time also bettered her national record of 4:16.42 set in June last year.

The Republic's bowlers continued to dominate the field at Orchid Country Club.

New Hui Fen, a gold medallist in the singles event on Wednesday, won her second gold as she and partner Darshini Krishna bowled 2,680 pinfalls over six games to take the doubles crown.

They finished 101 pinfalls ahead of Thais Sathean Tanaprang and Saebe Yanee. South Korea's Oh Nu-Ri and Sim Ui-Jin were third, a further 75 pinfalls behind.

Singapore's Brandon Lee and Christopher Hwang clinched bronze in the boys' doubles with a final score of 2,596, behind South Korea (2,711) and Japan (2,679).

The duo fought back from fifth place after five games with the highest score of a combined 514 pinfalls in the last game.

At the Bishan Stadium, hurdler Inez Leong finished third in the 100m hurdles in 15.22s, behind Japan's Mayu Ueda (14.18s) and South Korea's Park Suel Gi (14.67s).

Singapore's other bronze yesterday came from shooter Abel Lim in the 10m air rifle. His score of 685.6 was just 0.6 behind China's Wu Jianing and Gao Tingjie.

Jianing edged out Tingjie 10.5 to 10.3 in a final shoot-off at Safra Yishun to take gold.

The Republic's three golds and five bronzes leave it fourth in the medal standings. China is tops with 13 golds, three silvers and two bronzes. South Korea is second (four, five, five) and Japan third (three, four, zero).

Senior Parliamentary Secretary (Community Development, Youth and Sports) Teo Ser Luck, who had previously set a five-medal target, said yesterday he was confident the country's athletes could hit five golds by the time the AYG ends on Tuesday.