Swimmer Tamika Williams steps on to the starting blocks this morning knowing that the outcome of five years hard work will be decided in the next 30 seconds.

Or 28.16 seconds to be exact. Because that is the time she needs to achieve to realise her dream of representing Bermuda in the women's 50 metre freestyle at the Commonwealth Games.

Anything outside that and it will be heartbreak for the approachable 19-year-old, who has struggled to find her best form in her two events at the CAC Games so far.

She'll know, in those brief and gut-churning moments before the gun goes off, that it could be something as seemingly simple as her entry into the water that could decide whether she'll be getting on the plane to Kuala Lumpur.

She'll also know it's just about within her grasp if everything goes well: she swam just outside the mark at 28:32 in Barbados recently and 27:04 in the Bermuda national championships at the beginning of the summer.

"It could come down to how good a dive I get,'' she says. "Everything has to be just perfect.'' But she adds: "I've worked five years for this. I really, really want to go to the Commonwealth Games.'' However, over the past few days, she has had to struggle against tiredness -- the hangover from a recent bout of tonsillitis -- and the general stresses of competing in this part of the world. Those have been well documented in this newspaper.

However, she is honest enough to admit: "I don't really know if it's this place. I've been to worse. It may be because of the meet in Barbados two weeks' ago. I don't seem to have as much strength and power as usual. I've not been able to focus and my mind seems to have been elsewhere.'' She also thinks she's been affected by the absence of coach Bill Franklin.

"I'm really missing him. He's good for up here,'' she says, pointing to her head, "as well as all the technical stuff.'' Yesterday, as the most important day in her career approached, she spent the hours having an early morning swim to keep her loose, before resting and relaxing in her room and in the company of fellow competitors.

"I know a lot of the other swimmers, so I tend to hang out with them,'' she says.

One of those is Siobhan Cropper, of Trinidad, winner of silvers in the women's 50 and 100 free at the last CAC Games in Ponce, Puerto Rico and no doubt a competitor today.

"She's my idol,'' says Williams. "She's good for me.'' However, even if everything does go to plan, Williams knows her passage to Malaysia is not assured.

Officially, Tuesday was the cut-off date for competitors.

But she has the backing of the Bermuda Amateur Swimming Association and it would be a hard heart at the Bermuda Olympic Association that would deny her such an opportunity out of bureaucracy.

Team-mate Craig Roberts, meanwhile, enjoyed his best day of the Games yesterday when he went close to equalling his personal best in his heat of the men's 50m freestyle.

But Roberts' time of 26.06 was the slowest among the three heats -- again emphasising the quality on view here.

In fact, so good is the competition that the winner of Roberts' heat, Puerto Rican Ricardo Busquets -- a regular participant in Bermuda meets -- set a new CAC Games record.

Busquets finished in 22.73 to beat the mark of 23.40 set by Venezuela's Francisco Sanchez in Busquet's country in 1993.

Sanchez himself swam a 23.59 which was enough to propel him into last night's final, where he would have been looking to snatch back the record and take gold for good measure.

SWIMMING SW