disastrous swim in the 100 metres breaststroke -- his best event -- here yesterday morning.

Roberts was using the CAC Games as a last bid to qualify for next month's Games in Kuala Lumpur, but the tall 24-year-old failed to recover from a poor start, finishing last in his heat and with the slowest time of all 14 competitors.

That time -- 1:13.48 -- was more than five seconds outside the mark he needed to stand a chance of going to Malaysia, and five seconds worse than his qualifying standard for these Games.

Fellow Bermudian Tamika Williams also disappointed in the women's 100m freestyle, but at least she has her best event -- the 50m freestyle -- to come.

Roberts was disconsolate afterwards and coach Dawna Ferguson was at a loss to explain his performance.

Before the race, his confidence had been high -- in Ferguson's words he'd had "a great warm up'' and was looking "really sharp''.

"I don't know what went wrong,'' she said. "Maybe he tightened up in the last 50 metres. He felt good going into the race and was not overly nervous.

Perhaps you just have to put it down to one of those bad days.

"He's not normally someone who gets nervous, he's a pretty seasoned swimmer with a good approach to meets.

"But the competition here is very tough. Maybe he found it a bit overwhelming.'' In fairness, the lead-up to the swimming, which opened the Games, had been unsettling. Roberts and Williams had been forced to train in a pool that was over-heated and had inadequate surrounding facilities such as starting blocks.

And on Friday, Ferguson had been summoned, along with coaches from the other competing countries, to a technical meeting where they were informed that the competition pool was not complete.

That followed Chef de Mission Joan Taplin's visit to the site in May, when it was learned that the pool was not deep enough to meet international competition regulations.

The pool's sides had to be built upwards several feet to make it viable and it was a close run thing, with construction workers toiling round the clock to complete it. It was finally finished early yesterday -- just hours before Roberts and Williams were due to compete.

Although there was no outward sign of the last-minute panic, Roberts was a little disconcerted to find the temperature of the water as much as ten degrees higher than he is used to.

"It definitely has an effect,'' confirmed Ferguson. "This pool is well over 80 degrees -- in fact closer to 90 -- and our swimmers are more used to competing at around 74.

"But I'm not trying to make excuses: it's the same for everybody and it shouldn't make that big a difference.'' Ferguson now faces the task of lifting Roberts' confidence again before his next event, the 100 metres freestyle on Tuesday.

"I've just tried to talk to him to get him to focus on the 100 metres. That's a good event for him. He's just got to stay positive.'' Williams, meanwhile, had been hoping for a high 1:01 in her event yesterday, but she finished in 1:04.28 and sixth out of seven in her heat.

She said afterwards: "It's very disappointing. I know it's not my best event but it's one of my best. I was about three seconds off what I should have done. I don't know why.''