A week after Ryan Arabejo bettered two Southeast Asian Games records, two other RP mainstays, Daniel Coakley, and Erica Totten, shattered two national marks in the opening of the 13th FINA World Championships last Sunday in Rome, Italy.

Coakley, a Fil-American who competed in the Beijing Olympics last year, clocked 24.71 seconds in the men’s 50-meter butterfly to break the old record of 25.85 seconds which he set in the 2007 World Junior Swimming Championships in Brazil.

Totten also beat her own women’s 400m freestyle, timing four minutes and 21.32 second to surpass her old mark of 4:23.68 set at the Ohio Swimming Grand Prix earlier this year. It was Totten’s fifth record after resetting four last April.

Despite their record-shattering performances, the two were badly beaten by their world-class rivals as Coakley wound up 76th in their qualifying stage while Totten was only good for 38th place in her division.

But saddest news is they only emerged third best among Southeast Asian entries.

Malaysia’s Daniel Bego, a gold medalist in the men’s 100m fly in the 2007 Thailand SEAG, was the best performer among Southeast Asian competitors in the 50m butterfly with 24.38 seconds. Indon Glenn Sutanto also beat Coakley.

Singapore’s Quah Ting Wen and Lynette Lim upstaged Totten in the 400m freestyle.

The quartet of Kendrick Uy, Charles Walker and Olympians Miguel Molina and Coakley could only finish 24th in the preliminary of the men’s 4x100m free relay after posting a time of 3:28.01.

The RP quartet missed the RP mark by three seconds, said swimming chief Mark Joseph. Walker and Molina are lined up to compete in the men’s 200m freestyle heats at presstime.

The RP swimmers are using the tournament as part of their preparations for the Laos SEA Games this December.