Rebecca Heyliger has one more shot at qualifying for the Fina World Championships after missing out in the 50 metres freestyle at the Validus Bermuda National Championships.

The Denmark-based swimmer returned home with the sole purpose of hitting the mark but was six hundredths of a second off, clocking a best time of 26.55sec yesterday.

She will now look to qualify for the Worlds, held in Budapest from July 14 to 30, at the Central American and Caribbean Amateur Confederation Championships (CCCAN) in Trinidad from June 22 to July 3.

Speaking before her final race at the Aquatics Centre, Heyliger — who competed at the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games last summer — said she intended to up her strength training over the coming weeks.

“Things are going pretty well and I did a nice training camp in Slovenia recently,” Heyliger said. “However, I haven’t had enough time to get what I need to get done and when I return to Denmark I aim to get back in the weight room and get stronger.”

Since moving to Denmark after the Olympics, the 24-year-old has competed for Hvidovre under the watchful eye of coach Mads Glaesner, a three-times Olympian and Heyliger’s boyfriend.

She has also made adjustments to her stroke and experimented with her new swing-style technique at the Championships with some success.

“Right now I do a straight arm over the top,” said Heyliger, who headed straight to the LF Wade International Airport after the event.

“What I’m trying to work on is bringing my arm to the side and hopefully catching more water.

“I think it will take a bit longer for it translate into faster times but comparing my Thursday and Friday swims, when I did straight arm, to this morning when I did swing, there was an improvement.”

Heyliger, who is studying for an online MBA while working for her former sponsor Awbury Insurance Ltd, also won the 100 free at the Championships in 57.96.

“I like swimming nationals as that’s normally where I swim my best times,” Heyliger added.

“I definitely enjoyed coming back and it was great to talk to some of the younger swimmers. I was once one of them and it was fun to have the shoe on the other foot.”

Ben Smith, the Bermuda swimming coach, said the event served as ideal preparations for CCCAN where the island’s swimmers will look to build on their 39-medal haul at last month’s Carifta Games in Bahamas.

“It was exciting to have 95 per cent of the Carifta guys back and we had some really fast times,” Smith said. “We have the same team from Carifta qualified for CCCAN and right now that team looks really good.

“It was great to have Elan Daley and Payton Zelkin back as they both did some damage at Carifta and are battling each other.

“Payton has just turned 13 and was racing some of the older girls from Carifta and that’s been a good dynamic to see that step up for her.

“We also had Jessica Bruton hit both of her qualifying times for CCCAN. We’ll be announcing that squad [today].”