KUALA LUMPUR - Synchronised swimmer Debbie Soh bagged the Republic's first gold of the 29th SEA Games after finishing top in the solo free routine at the National Aquatic Centre on Thursday (Aug 17).

Compatriot Miya Yong, 17, took bronze in the same event.

The 19-year-old scored a total of 75.0000 (22.3000 for execution, 30.000 for artistic impression and 22.7000 for difficulty), while compatriot Miya, 17, scored 73.0333 (22.2000 for execution, 28.9333 for artistic impression and 21.9000 for difficulty).

Malaysia's Lee Yhing Huay was second with 74.7000.

Soh, speaking to the media, said she was delighted to win Singapore's first gold medal: "I've been training really hard and attending a lot of overseas competitions and training camps for this Games. So to know that my hard work has paid off means quite a lot to me, as well as the people who are supporting me."

Soh and Miya will compete in the solo technical routine later on Thursday evening.

"Going into tonight's solo technical, I'm hoping we can keep the ball rolling for Team Singapore. Since we got the first gold and bronze medals (for synchronised swimming), we are hoping to keep this streak going or do even better," Soh added.

The pair were part of the team who won Singapore's first-ever SEA Games synchronised swimming gold in 2015, when they emerged top in the team technical and free routine. The other swimmers in the team were Stephanie Chen, Natalie Chen, Lee Mei Shuang, Crystal Yap, Gwyneth Goh, Geraldine Chew, Shona Lim and Tay Aik Fen.

At the 2015 Games in Singapore, the Republic also won gold in the team free combination to bag two of the three golds on offer. Malaysia took the other gold in the duet technical and free event.

At last month's Fina World Championships in Budapest, Soh and Miya outperformed their Malaysian rivals across four events - the women's solo technical, duet technical, duet free and solo free.