There was an excellent start to the ASA Age Group Swimming Meeting at the National Pool on Thursday as two records were broken in the first session of the three-day international competition.

The national men's relay team, made up of Mark Sammut, Andrea Agius, Neil Agius and Edward Caruana Dingli, broke the 4x100m medley record when they clocked 4.07.21 to improve on their previous best of 4.08.49.

The same four swimmers had established the old record during their participation in the FINA World Championships in Rome last July.

The ASA relay quartet won gold in an event that also saw the participation of local teams Neptunes and Iasis and those of Windsor Swim Club (UK) and Swimming Club Kreuzlingen (Switzerland).

The relay team's new mark erased the ASA meet's record set by SV Wacker Bughausen (4.09.53) in the Easter competition of 2002.

Separately, during the first leg of the same relay event, Sammut broke the Group D Age Group record in the 100m back when he clocked 1.03.13.

He improved further on his timing of 1.03.34, registered recently when he participated in a swim-off against a French swimmer in the Lyon International Swim Meet.

On the foreign scene, the Sliema ASC swimming team, under the charge of coach Stan Catalin, have just returned from England where they took part in the Reading Easter Meet held last week.

During the meet, Rebecca Dalli set a new short course record in the 800m freestyle event when she posted a time of 10.51.91.

Dalli's team-mate, Julia Zahra, was also inside the previous record in the same event with a time of 11.06.50.

The previous 800m short course record belonged to Simone Xerri de Carro. The record, 11.20.00, was set in January 1992.