LAMPANG, Thailand — Swimmers from the Singapore Sports School (SSP) delivered the lion’s share of the medals on the opening day of the 16th Thailand Sports School Games (TSSG) in Lampang, with 13-year-old Erasmus Ang striking the first gold at the Games for the school.

Erasmus won the boys’ under-14 800m freestyle with a personal best of 9min 52.90secs as the SSP took away 15 gold medals from the Lampang Sports School pool, and stayed on track to hit the target of 44 golds from swimming.

This year’s TSSG — an annual meet featuring sports schools from the host country and region — has a record 25 sports schools taking part, including five from Malaysia, two from Indonesia and one each from Brunei and Singapore.

With three Malaysian sports schools making their debut at these Games, competition was a lot stiffer in the pool although SSP Swimming Academy head coach Barry Prime feels the TSSG is not just about winning medals.

“We’re working in an environment to develop student athletes, and these Games provide the conditions to strengthen team bonding besides sharpening their competition skills,” said Prime.

“It builds the foundation for the future while the less-pressurised atmosphere allows them to swim with free spirit, and it’s good to see the students enjoying themselves.”

Over at the Lampang Institute of Physical Education stadium, the SSP won three golds in track and field.

Competing yesterday morning in the Under-14 division, 12-year-old Tia Rozario won the girls’ long jump with a personal best distance of 5.0m, ahead of Pattara Nit from the Surat Thani Sports School (4.93m) and Sarthiga of Bangkok Sports School (4.85m).

For Tia, hitting the five-metre mark was a pleasant surprise, and she credited her coach Valery Obidko for the result. “I’ve never jumped 5m before, but he corrected my technique and that made me a better jumper,” said Tia, who will compete in the 100m hurdles today.

SSP’s other golds came from the girls’ Under-18 100m, with national record holder Shanti Pereira winning in 12.06s, while Koh Jun Jie won the boys’ Under-14 shot put with a 13.94m effort.

Shanti’s time was slower than the 11.89s national mark set last month at the IAAF World Youth Games in Donetsk, Ukraine, while Jun Jie was pleased to recover from a bad outing last week at the International Children’s Games (ICG) in Windsor, Canada.

Said Jun Jie: “I threw a poor 12.44m at the ICG, so I’m pleased to get back my feel with a 13.94m effort today. It was still an average outing as I thought I could do better.”

The SSP has set a target of 72 gold medals from the Games and ended the first day of competition with 23 golds, including five from shooting.

In netball, the SSP’s 13-year-olds went down 22-20 to Nakhon Sawan Sports School in the Under-16 competition.

Philip Goh’s trip to the Thailand Sports School Games is sponsored by the Singapore Sports School.