home crowd, comes a part of the Bermuda National Swimming Championship that Gareth Davies dreads: Telling a swimmer that he or she is not good enough.

In charge of one of Bermuda's deepest teams ever, Davies will this weekend see team-mates become rivals as they vie for spots on one of three national squads heading overseas this summer.

For many, it's their last chance to qualify. And, in a unique twist, others who qualify may still get left behind.

Davies calls this weekend's competition at BASA Pool "cut-throat' and "extremely stressful.'' And for a coach, painful.

"We're used to our guys swimming against the clock or against overseas teams,'' said Davies. "Now we've got locals out there, some of whom certainly won't qualify, and seeing the amount of work they have put in, it's difficult.'' Nowhere is this more evident than in tomorrow night's 100-metre freestyle final.

Already three swimmers -- Stephen Fahy, Stephen Troake and Matthew Hammond -- have made the demanding qualifying standards for the Commonwealth Games. Two others -- Trevor Ferguson and Ronald Cowen -- are on the cusp.

All five could technically qualify and Bermuda, for the first time, will send a relay team to the Commonwealth Games. But that could see the slowest of the five on the weekend get left behind -- even though he's bettered the standard.

Bermuda Amateur Swimming Association selectors will meet briefly right after the competition ends on Sunday night and then again later next week. With a team slated to go to Barbados next month for the Caribbean Age-Group Championships, another to Venezuela in August for the CAC Games and still another to Malaysia in September for the Commonwealth Games, they have tough choices.

None of the swimmers are yet guaranteed a place on either team. Only two swimmers per event can be selected.

For those aiming for Barbados and Venezuela, this will likely be the last opportunity. It's still possible for swimmers -- especially those travelling this summer -- to meet the Commonwealth standard.

In order to help them along, BASA have once again brought in a pair of international stars and a handful of top-flight Floridians.

Brendon Dedekind, the 1998 NCAA 50-yard freestyle champion and the fifth-place finisher in the 50m free for South Africa at the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics, and Stephen Parry, the 1997 NCAA 200-yard butterfly champion and a member of the British World Championship team this year -- he was sixth in the final -- will provide a stiff challenge to the Island swimmers.

Both are 21-year-olds at Florida State University and will be joined by another Seminole, Kerwin Deese, a backstroker making his fourth trip to Bermuda. Also on hand will be Americans Jeff Taegel, Paige Kearns, Sara Stranksy and Loree Hughes, all of whom have competed here before.

Dedekind, who is also a strong breaststroker, will push the freestylers, while Parry will be matched against Fahy in the Bermudian's strongest event, the 200m individual medley. Fahy, who has just returned from his second year at Yale University, recently smashed the national record by three seconds, although that's still a second off Parry's best.

Meanwhile, Bermuda's Tamika Williams is just .7 seconds from a Commonwealth Games berth in the 50m free and one second off the 100m free mark. Kearns could push her over the top.

This is the tenth year BASA have brought in elite competitors for the nationals and Davies says that for his swimmers "there's nothing like being on your home ground, going out and swimming faster than you ever have.''