Nearly 200 swimmers will compete this weekend at the Makin Waves Summer Age Group Championships at the BASA pool.

And most of Bermuda's best will be on the starting blocks when the meet starts tonight.

Rebecca Sharpe, Julian Fletcher and Roy Allan Burch, who all flew the flag for Bermuda at the FINA World Championships in Rome last summer, will return to the Island for the competition.

Ben Smith, the Aquatics Manager and national coach said of this weekend's event: "This will be an exciting age group competition for Bermuda swimming. We will have close to 200 swimmers competing from Friday to Sunday."

The event starts off tonight "with some of our distance events and then we have heats on Saturday and Sunday morning with finals to follow on Saturday and Sunday evening".

Smith added: "This will be the final local age group competition for the season and we can expect to have the brightest and best in top form at the meet.

"Our young record breakers, Mitch Gariepy and Emma Harvey, will both be aiming to continue their good form and will be trying to finish top in their age groups. Many swimmers will also be looking for qualifying times for upcoming overseas meets and for our own CCS Bermuda National Championships.

"We have a special treat with some of Bermuda's elite athletes being on Island to participate in the meet. We have three local elite athletes that have just completed their freshmen year at university where they have been training hard and competing for their teams.

"Rebecca Sharpe has just returned from a strong season at the University of Toronto and will be continuing her preparation for CISC and CAC Games this summer where she will continue to be pushing in the backstroke events.

"She will be joined by Julian Fletcher who is at Southern Methodist University and will be looking to continue his fast swimming in the breaststroke events. Eleanor Gardner has just finished her first year at John Hopkins and will be looking to follow from last year's strong showing in the sprint free swims."

Lisa Blackburn will also be competing in the breaststroke events as she aims to make the qualifying times for CAC Games in Puerto Rico and this year's Commonwealth Games in India.

Beijing Olympian Roy Allan Burch has returned from his training programme in Cologne, Germany and is preparing for all of the upcoming meets.

There are also four swimmers from his German team who have come to Bermuda to take part in the meet and also National Championships.

Smith added: "They will add another level of competition to our older swimmers and more excitement to the meet.

"It is always great to have an opportunity to have our top swimmers compete in front of the home crowd. Our future elite athletes, young swimmers and parents don't get the chance to see these role models and we need to celebrate them when they are able to display their skills.

"We are looking forward to some very fast swimming and hope to see some more records broken. It would be good to have some of the non swimming community come out and see our swimmers racing at the top level and see what their hard work and dedication can achieve."