Rebecca Heyliger, the Bermuda swimmer, shattered the 50 metres freestyle national record in the Validus Bermuda National Championships at the weekend.

Competing in the Aquatic Centre’s 50 metres pool, Heyliger, 22, blazed her way to a time of 26.58sec to claim victory.

She also won the 100 freestyle with a stellar time of 58.02 and earned the praise of Ben Smith, the Bermuda coach.

“Rebecca’s swim in the 100 and 50 free were exceptional,” he said. “It shows the work that she’s been doing at the [University of Southern California] is paying off.”

The 22-year-old’s performance also earned her consideration for the Fina World Championships in Kazan, Russia, with an announcement on team selection expected shortly.

Youngsters Jack Harvey, Keagan Woolley, and Skylar Powell performed well at the Fina-sanctioned meet, and all qualified for this month’s Central American and Caribbean Amateur Championships in Barbados.

Rex Tullius, from the US Virgin Islands, was on the island for the meet and also qualified for the World Championships.

Tullius achieved qualifying times in the 100 and 200 backstroke, finishing in 56.57 and 2:02.99.

The windy weather was a factor in only the second long-course event held at the Aquatics Centre.

“The weather really didn’t cooperate well,” Smith said. “It’s actually quite a windy site, which can have a huge impact on the performances.

“You saw a big fluctuation from the first few days of the meet to [the final day on Sunday] when the weather was much better.

“We need to have more competitions there to really see if it’s what we would consider a ‘fast pool’.

Meanwhile, ten-year-old Elan Daley competed in seven events, finishing as the points leader in the 12-and-under girls category, holding off Holly and Jessica Bruton.

Woolley led the way in the boys 12-and-under category, finishing ahead of Harvey and Brian Desmond. Madelyn Moore finished first in the girls 13-and-over, with Shannon Hassell second and Ashley Yearwood third.

Jesse Washington was the overall points leader in the 13-and-over boys, beating Julian Fletcher and Tyler Mazurek.