Don't run before you can walk, they say, but what about swimming?

One 23-month-old toddler turned conventional wisdom on its head yesterday when she smashed a swimming record for babies in The Malaysia Book of Records in Mont Kiara, Kuala Lumpur.

Kiara Belle Kit (1st photo) swam 199.35m in 25min 38sec, a distance that far surpasses the previous record of 50m set by a 2 1/2-year-old girl in 2003.

But like all children, she needed a little help from mum and dad.

When she started slowing down around the 100m mark, her parents Cindy Ong (2nd photo, with Kiara), 32, and Tang Kit, 41, motivated her by letting her see Toby, a family friend's pet and her favourite rabbit, reported The Sun daily.

Mr Tang, a network engineering consultant for a United States- based technology firm, said his daughter got her second wind when she saw the rabbit, the report said.

Ms Ong is a former Malaysian national swimmer, as is her brother Allen Ong. Their mother Ong Mei Lin took part in the swim event at the 1972 Munich Olympics.