SINGAPORE - Swimmer Quah Zheng Wen won Singapore's 51st gold medal at the SEA Games, breaking the previous record haul of 50 golds set at the 1993 edition on home soil.
Quah, swimming in the 400m individual medley, clocked 4:23.50 to finish ahead of compatriot Pang Sheng Jun (4:24.81) and third-placed Tran Duy Khoi (4:26.29) of Vietnam.
The weight of his history-making achievement was not lost on the 18-year-old, who said: "I'm happy and proud to do my part to help Singapore achieve and surpass the 50-gold mark. I still have three more events, and I look forward to doing the country proud and achieving more new milestones."
His gold was one of four the Republic's swimmers picked up in the pool on Day 4 of competition, as Joseph Schooling clocked the fourth best time in Asia this year in his pet event, the 100m butterfly.
Schooling touched home in a meet record time of 52.13sec. His time also met the Olympic "A" mark, although it was behind his personal best of 51.69sec.
Indonesia took silver and bronze. Glenn Victor Sutanto finished second in 52.9sec, and Triady Fauzi Sidiq (53.98) was third.
Quah and Schooling then teamed up with Clement Lim and Yeo Kai Quan to another win in the men's 4x100m relay, with a time of 3:19.59 proving far too good for closest rivals Malaysia (3:25.55) and Indonesia (3:25.92).
Tao Li collected her third gold of the Games and Singapore's 15th overall in the women's 100m backstroke with a time of 1:02.67. Indonesia's Ratih Anak Agung Istri Kania (1:04.38) and Roxanne Ashley Yu (1:04.80) of the Philippines settled for silver and bronze respectively.
Quah Ting Wen added a silver in the women's 200m butterfly. She finished in 2:14.50, behind Vietnam sensation Nguyen Thi Anh Vien, who clocked a Games record time of 2:11.12. Thailand's Sutasinee Pankaew was third in 2:14.51.
