Roy-Allan Burch cannot wait to mix it with the best again when he goes in the 50-metre freestyle on Thursday at the Central American and Caribbean Games in Veracruz, Mexico.

Bermuda’s top male swimmer finished seventh in the men’s 100 metres freestyle final on Saturday in 51.36sec, — 01.36 behind winner Hanser García, of Cuba. Burch is also scheduled to race in the 50m butterfly today.

The 50m freestyle, though, is likely to be his best chance of troubling the podium places and while he says next year’s Pan Am Games in Toronto and World Championships in Russia remain his priority, Burch is relishing the chance to compete against the depth of talent the CAC region can now offer.

“A podium position would be the most ideal for me,” he said. “The field is good, it’s really stepped up the last four years as a lot of these guys are pretty experienced and then you have the young guys in top colleges now, so there’ll be some great racing and that’s what I’m looking forward to the most — just getting after it with a bunch of guys that are strong contenders.”

Burch narrowly missed out on a medal at the last CAC Games in Puerto Rico in 2010, coming fourth after injuring his foot. He admits it will be even tougher to get on the podium this time around but is excited to see the results of his recent training at the Swim MAC programme in Charlotte, United States, where his team-mates include the likes of Ryan Lochte.

“I was still figuring out a lot back then [2010] so it’s good to go there knowing a lot more,” the Olympian said before flying to Mexico. “I’ll have to race tough.

“I bruised the top of my foot last time. I twisted and it hurt a lot. It kind of affected my kicking a bit so it was tough to have done that and not be able to race as well as I could have.”

Burch reached the semi-finals of the 50m freestyle in the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow this summer, coming fifth — and eleventh overall — in a high-class field. He also recorded a personal best in the 100m freestyle, being eliminated at the semi-finals stage again. However, he believes there are lessons to be learned from his Scotland experience.

“I really have mixed emotions about the Commonwealths,” he said. “Maybe I could do different things in my preparation.

“A lot of it started from much earlier in the season when I was dealing with a lot of injuries and funny things were going on with my funding so I wasn’t able to keep up with my supplements.

“When I was full-bore in the Fall I was doing really well and my body was sustaining the training and I’m back there now.

“I’ve been able to take care of my body better leading into this meet. The CAC Games is not the focus but it’s important and it’s just a good place to see where I am at to keep pushing through the season, knowing that I’m fit.”

Bermuda’s Julian Fletcher was also in action in the pool on day two of the Games yesterday, competing in heat one of the men’s 100m breaststroke.

Fletcher touched the wall in a time of 1:05.97 finishing fifth and thirteenth overall. He then competed in the B Final, coming second in a time of 1:06.11.

Lisa Blackburn placed eighth in the women’s 100m breaststroke final in a time of 1:17.74. She represents Bermuda again today in the heats of the women’s 50m breaststroke.

Bermuda also had interest in the dressage where Virginia McKey completed her Prix St Georges competition.

Riding Wolkenglanz, she finished 21st out of 22nd competitors. McKey goes again today in the Intermediate 1 class.

Bermuda women’s hockey team suffered a 5-0 defeat against Trinidad and Tobago in their opening pool B game. Bermuda take on Dominican Republic today.