A sub-23 second swim in the 50 metres freestyle proved to be the pinnacle for Roy-Allan Burch at the Arena Grand Prix at Charlotte, which concluded at a packed Mecklenburg County Aquatic Centre yesterday.

The two-times Bermuda Olympian gave a reminder of the significant strides that he has made since joining SwimMac Carolina’s Elite Team a year ago by posting a blistering 22.99sec en route to qualifying for the 50 free A final.

Burch’s impressive time was the sixth fastest during the preliminary heats, beating out the likes of Cullen Jone, his SwimMac team-mate and the United States 50 free record-holder over the long course.

“It is always nice to do that and to be under 23 seconds again just reaffirms that I can do that on any given day,” Burch said. “Had I not made a simple mistake, that swim could have been even faster. My goggles filled up with water from not having them tight enough, which was an amateur mistake.”

Ben Smith, the national coach who has been in North Carolina this week as an interested observer, was excited by Burch’s performance in the preliminary rounds.

“Last year this time, he did 23.06 in the 50 free, so to go 22.99 shows you that, even though he is training hard, he is still faster than he was last year this time,” Smith said. “To go 22 seconds tells you that he has that speed — and there were portions of the race that were significantly faster than what I have seen him do before.

“Once you are going 22 seconds and making A finals at a competition with athletes that are Olympic medallist, you have arrived. Obviously, the work he is doing has put him in a place where he is swimming much faster.”

Burch did not fare as well in the final, bringing up the rear in 23.16 against a formidable field that included three of the top five finishers at the 2012 London Olympics.

“I knew what I needed to do in my 50, I just wasn’t able to completely execute it,” he admitted. “But that was not due to necessarily racing badly.”

Unfortunately for Burch, the downward trend spilled over into yesterday’s 100 freestyle, for which he failed to reach the final after clocking 52.16 in his qualifying heat.

“As far as the 100 goes, I still have some learning to do,” the 28-year-old said. “I need to figure out how to execute my last 25. But I got some good information from Anthony Ervin [multiple Olympic and World Championships gold medal-winner] who is the greatest sprinter in the world, as far as I am concerned. He gave me some really valuable information that I can take back to training and execute in workouts.

“I would have liked to have completed my races a little better. But overall it was a successful weekend.”

Another highlight for Burch at the weekend was helping SwimMac to victory in the 4 x 100 freestyle relay after being drafted into the team at the eleventh hour.

“It is always nice to have a win and it is a good confidence booster, whether it is a relay or not,” Burch said. “I swim with a great group of guys and when you are around that kind of talent you always want to swim up to that level, so it was a good experience for me.”

Burch’s meet began in sensation when he helped SwimMac to gold in the 4 x 100. Burch swam an impressive 51.05 split for the third leg as his team touched down first in 3min 23.92sec to beat Canada A by 17 hundredths of a second.

Among the star attractions was Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian in history, who stormed to victory in the 100 metres butterfly with a time of 52.13.