SINGAPORE — Joseph Schooling was the face of the Southeast Asian Games marketing campaign, entrusted to deliver gold medals and a high profile for Singapore. The University of Texas swimmer made the perfect start Sunday, winning the 100-meter freestyle and leading Singapore to victory in a freestyle relay in meet record times for two gold medals from two events. That's half as many golds as Vietnam's Nguyen Thi Ahn Vien, who got the jump on Schooling by winning two in meet record times on the opening day of the swim competition and adding another pair — the women's 200 backstroke and the 200 individual medley — on day two. The 18-year-old Nguyen's bid for medals in 11 events ended in the opening final of the second night, when she finished in fourth place in the 50 butterfly. Schooling's meet record in the 100 freestyle was 48.58 seconds, edging teammate Quah Zheng Wen into second spot and Hoang Quy Phuoc of Vietnam into bronze. At the end of the opening weekend, Singapore had 26 gold medals and 83 overall to lead the medal standings. Vietnam had 21 gold, while Thailand had 20 gold and 63 overall. Indonesia was in fourth spot with 12 gold medals, followed by Malaysia with eight, Myanmar with seven and Philippines with six. Cambodia had one. Sunday's competition started with a tropical downpour, which relented only shortly before Soh Rui Yong won the marathon in just his second race over the distance. Only 10 of the 12 male starters completed the course, with a tropical deluge causing issues for most runners. The Oregon-based Soh won in 2 hours, 34 minutes, 56 seconds, almost the length of the final straight ahead of an exhausted Srisung Boonthung of Thailand, who led most of the way. Hoang Nguyen Thanh of Vietnam was third, followed by Sayuit Hamdan Syafril of Indonesia, Filipino veteran Eduardo Beunavista and Kuniaki Takizaki, a Japanese-born comedian who is competing for Cambodia. Thanaronnawat Natthaya of Thailand won the women's marathon in 3:03:25. Singapore's 46-43 win over Malaysia in the netball final was an afternoon highlight for the local crowd after a closely contested competition. Philippines went through unbeaten in the return of rugby sevens to the SEA Games program and outplayed Malaysia 24-7 in the men's final, not long after Thailand thrashed Singapore 39-0 in the women's final. — AP
