The five Maltese swimmers competing in the 12th FINA 2014 World Swimming Short-Course Championship in Doha, Qatar had a bright start when they broke four national records and did two personal bests on the first three days of events.

The team, accompanied by ASA officials and national coach Andy Colbourn, quickly adjusted to the demands of the starting and turning techniques of these races and were rewarded for their efforts.

First off the mark on Wednesday was Neil Muscat who broke the 100-metre backstroke record with a time 57.55 seconds to beat Mark Sammut’s old mark of 58.62 set in Istanbul in 2011.

On the second day, his sister Nicola swam the 100 free in 57.99 seconds, an improvement on her own limit of 58.05 seconds, also set in Turkey three years ago.

That was followed by Matthew Zammit’s record in the 50 freestyle when he stopped the watches on 22.77 to erase the name of Andrew Chetcuti, whose national record stood at 22.95 seconds.

Yesterday, Neil Muscat again made inroads on his own previous limit of 26.94 seconds in the 50 backstroke set during the longer 100-metre event on Wednesday. This time he clocked 26.60 seconds.

Meanwhile, Colbourn expressed his satisfaction at the performances of his swimmers, stating that this was the result of hard work and motivation to do better.

Today, Julian Harding will be engaged in the 50-metre breaststroke, while Nicola Muscat will race in the 50 free and Zammit and Raoul Stafrace, who clocked 23.06 in the 50 free on Thursday, will compete in the 100 free.