Poon (11), a pupil at John McGlashan College, was in hot form and set new short course records in the boys aged 10 and 11 grade in the following events: 50m freestyle (29.61sec), 100m freestyle (1min 04.99sec), 400m freestyle (4min 58.55sec), 200m backstroke (2min 40.66sec), 50m breaststroke (38.70sec), 200m butterfly (2min 48.08sec), 200m individual medley (2min 38.60sec), 400m individual medley (5min 36.54sec).
Four of the records were long standing with the oldest being the 100m freestyle that had been held by Colin Wilson since 1992.
He also broke three records set by Sam Caradus, who dominated Otago junior swimming 14 years ago and held 10 Otago short course records in this age group since 1995.
Caradus was one of the most promising swimmers in Duncan Laing's squad at that time on both the local and national scene.
Poon, who is a member of Gennadiy Labara's Osca squad, removed Caradus from the record books in three events - the 50m freestyle, 400m freestyle, and 200m backstroke.
He also broke the 50m breaststroke record set by the promising Wanaka swimmer Matt Henderson last October.
"I believed I could break eight records at this meeting and I did," Poon said.
"My next target is to break New Zealand records."
His efforts helped Neptune to win the teams event with 4056 points from Wharenui (Christchurch) 4009, Jasi (Christchurch) 1277 and Murihiku (Southland) 846.
There were 279 swimmers competing at the carnival with teams coming from as far as Hamilton and Central Queensland.
Seven swimmers came from the Moranbah Highlanders club of Queensland and they finished seventh in the teams event.
They also competed at a meeting in Wellington.
The best performed swimmer from the Australian club was Brittany Anderson (13) who finished third in the overall individual rankings with 241 points.
Matthew Hutchins (Wharenui) was the top individual swimmer with 320 points and was followed by Nick Tyrrell (Neptune) with 247 points.
The two open Otago records broken at the weekend went to swimmers trained by Labara in the Osca squad.
Matthew Glassford (19) set a new mark in the men's 200m breaststroke (2min 16.30sec) and Lil Clearwater (15) in the women's 200m backstroke (2min 18.13sec).
Glassford shifted to Dunedin from Alexandra nearly five years ago to improve his swimming and initially trained with Duncan Laing's squad before joining Labara's squad.
The open men's grade was won by Nick Tyrrell (Neptune) with 76 points from Luke Morgan (Jasi) 56 and Lyndon Bird (Jasi) 53.
The open women's grade was won by Katie Kenneally (Neptune) 54 points, from Adrienne Tameilau (Neptune) 52, and Nicola Collie (Jasi) 47.
The other age grade winners were: Annalise Cook (Alexandra) girls aged 8 and under, Cameron Moran (Queenstown) boys aged 8 and under, Sydney Cook (Alexandra) girls aged 10 and under, Campbell Pearson (Alexandra) boys aged 10 and under, Rebekah Paul (Queenstown) girls aged 11 and 12, Ronald Poon (Neptune) boys aged 11 and 12, Emily Poon (Neptune) girls aged 13 and 14, Matthew Hutchins (Wharenui) boys aged 13 and 14.
