SINGAPORE - Filipino sprinter Eric Shauwn Cray took the National Stadium by storm as he clinched the 100m SEA Games gold in 10.25sec on Tuesday.
Indonesia's Yaspi Boby claimed the silver with 10.45, while teammate Iswandi also finished with 10.45, but took the bronze.
Said Cray: "I was just excited, I am happy to come out healthy and I am looking forward to tomorrow's 400m hurdles race."
Singapore's Calvin Kang ran a personal-best time of 10.47, placing him fourth - ahead of Thailand's defending champion Jirapong Meenapra. Kang also clocked the fastest reaction time of 0.131sec among all eight men's finalists.
An exhilarated Kang quipped immediately after the race: "I don't know about the results, but in terms of the technical run I was very happy."
Singapore's Amirudin Jamal finished sixth with 10.55.
In the women's 100m, the gold was awarded to Philippines' Kayla Richardson who sprinted to a 11.76 finish. Thailand's Tassaporn Wannakit, the 2013 100m bronze medalist, clinched a silver with 11.76s.
Singapore's Shanti Pereira clinched the bronze with a 11.88 effort, much to the approval of the home crowd.
Day one of the SEA Games athletics competition at the new and refurbished National Stadium also saw multiple Games records being set.
Both the men's and women's hammer throw Games records were rewritten by Philippines' John Stuart and Thailand's Koomphon Mingkamon respectively - to 65.63m and 56.57.
Thailand's Purahong Porranot also set a new men's pole vault record with 5.30m, up from the 2009 mark of 5.21m. Meanwhile, Malaysia's Ismail Muhammad Hakimi also smashed the men's triple jump record with a 16.76m effort.
Finally, Vietnam's Nguyen Van Lai also set a new men's 5,000m record with 14min 4.82sec.