who failed to set a personal best in the Olympic pool at Bernat Picornell yesterday morning.

Mewett made his Olympic debut on the heels of successive PB performances by Chris Flook, Jenny Smatt, Ian Raynor, and Raynor again in the 100 metres freestyle heat, which preceded his yesterday.

Mewett finished third in the fourth heat in 53.14 seconds, just off his PB and national record of 53.01 set at the Pan Am Games last year and a mere two-100ths of a second faster than Raynor.

Raynor recorded his second win of the Games in clearly a slower heat, knocking almost a second off his previous best.

The disappointment was clear on Mewett's face afterwards as he was hoping for a low-52 in his speciality. "I felt good and strong. The first 50 felt good but the time that I went out in wasn't as fast as I thought it was going to be,'' said Mewett. "It was a little bit slower over the first half that was where the difference was.'' Mewett's heat was won by Shigeo Ogatta of Japan in 52.74 with Enrico Linscheer of Surinam second in 52.94. Behind the Bermudian were Mohamed Elazoul of Egypt (53.31), Nikos Paleokrassas of Greece (53.47), Wi Jin Yeo of Singapore (54.44) and Frank Leskaj of Albania (55.50).

Raynor, despite the victory, figured that he would have been better off in a faster heat.

"I have mixed feelings on it because I thought I could max out at 52,'' he said. "Normally, I'm chasing people but this time I was swimming out by myself. I'm happy but I'm slightly disappointed at the same time.

"He (Mewett) had people with him all the way. If I had someone with me or slightly ahead of me we could have played a cat-and-mouse game.'' Raynor established himself at the 25-metre mark of his race and hit the turn at 24.96 for a lead of .71 seconds on Laurent Alfred of the US Virgin Islands, who eventually faded to fifth.

Zimbabwean Rhoderick McGown made up some ground on Raynor over the last 50 metres but was still well beaten in second place in 53.65. Plutarco Castellanos of Honduras (54.66) was third, Gustavo Bucaro Ortriz of Guatemala (55.38) sixth and Jarrah Al-Asmawi of Kuwait (56.7) seventh.

Thought disappointed himself that a national record was not set, coach Davies preferred to look on the bright side.

"Ian's a little disappointed but he dropped a second off his personal best time from last year's Pan American Games (54.01). So that augurs well for the relay,'' said Davies.

"Geri's time was almost identical to when he did his PB last year, so clearly he's a little disappointed. He went out too slowly but he came back really strong.

"In the relay tomorrow he's just got to go out and force it over the first 50. He's got to take a chance. With Ian going 53 and Geri 52 everything is set for a good relay tomorrow.''