THREE Bermudian swimmers will compete this summer at the XI FINA World Championships in Montreal, Canada.

Ashley Aitken, Graham Smith and Michael O'Connor, who all attend university in Canada, have qualified for the Worlds for the first time and will be up against many of last year's swimmers who won medals at the Athens Olympics.

Bermuda's top female swimmer, Kiera Aitken ? Ashley's older sister ? meanwhile is taking a short break from the rigours of training before launching herself back into the pool to get ready for next year's Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia.

Both Ashley Aitken and O'Connor are training regularly now at the Saltus pool while Smith is still in Canada. He is expected to return to the island any day now.

All three Bermudians bound for Montreal will have their Dalhousie University swim coach, David Fry, with them when they compete at the Worlds.

Ashley Aitken said this week: "This will be my first Worlds ? I am really looking forward to it although it will be a little scary."

Aitken, who specialises in the 50 and 100 butterfly, said: "If I have the chance hopefully I will be able to swim in the 50 and 100 freestyle as well."

Aitken has been at Dalhousie for two years now swimming alongside her sister. "Having Kiera there has been a great help. She keeps me motivated."

Of her season which just finished Aitken said: "It went really well although I was not happy with my last meet ? it wasn't as good as it should have been. But the season went well for Dal ? we won our conference. I wasn't totally happy with the way it went for me. I didn't do as well as I had the year before. I still went as fast but I didn't improve as much as I had when I first got there so I am hoping to really improve next season."

The Bermudian swimmer, who turns 20 years old later this month, said she had O'Connor have been training regularly at the Saltus pool every day since they returned from university. "Kathy Cowen is coaching us down here although when we go to the Worlds we will have David Fry, our coach at Dal, with us which will be great. In Bermuda we are doing a lot less metres (in the pool) than we normally would do at Dal but Michael and I have also been running before our swim in the evenings so that makes it a little bit harder."

And Aitken was happy that there will be three Bermudians going to the Worlds. "It's great ? we all support each other. And there is also the possibility of other Bermudians qualifying in time for the Worlds. The bigger team we have the better it is for all of us."

Coach Cowen is the mother of top Bermuda swimmer Ronald Cowen who has represented Bermuda in the past at the World Championships.

Michael O'Conner, who like Ashley Aitken, specialises in the butterfly, said: "This will be my first time at the Worlds. It will be intimidating ? no doubt about that. I was talking to Ashley the other day and saying how intimidating it will be when you walk out there with all these big names and we just come from this small little island."

O'Connor said his season at Dalhousie "went pretty well for me". He added: "I had some pretty decent times last summer and during the year."

While O'Connor will be swimming the 50 and 100 fly he is also hoping to compete in the 50 metres backstroke as well.

The fact that he is training here in Bermuda with Ashley Aitken who also specialises in the fly, has helped. O'Connor said: "It definitely helps training with her. We both know what we need to do ? it is good to have someone like that who does the same race."

O'Connor, who has just finished his third year at Dalhousie, said having three Bermudians coached by Fry will be a boost when they go to Montreal.

"We will support each other and having coach Fry there will help a lot ? he knows our ups and downs and what we need."

The training can be tiring sometimes. "We are training every day except Sundays and it can be mentally as well as physically tough. Your body is trying to shut down while your mind is trying to keep you going. It can be pretty taxing."

Both Aitken and O'Connor said they hoped to qualify for the Commonwealth Games when competing this summer at the Worlds.

"It would be great to qualify for the Commonwealth Games," he said.

Of his teammate Graham Smith, O'Connor said: "Graham is up in Canada this week graduating and we expect him to be back down here in a few days."

Smith will be swimming the backstroke at the Worlds.

All three swimmers were among the medal-winning swim team which flew the flag for Bermuda at the Island Games in 2003.

But they know the step-up to the Worlds is huge as Kiera Aitken knows.

She said: "It is great that they are going. It is a very big meet but having coach Fry along will help them ? I know he was very helpful to me when I was in Greece (at last summer's Olympics). I am really excited for Ashley going to the Worlds."

Aitken, who swam the backstroke at the Olympics and is now working in banking before returning to Dalhousie in September for her last semester, said she is enjoying her break from the pool.

"This is the first break I have had for quite a while. I have had two months off and over the past couple of years I have had only a week or two off. But I am planning to get back in the water really soon to start training for the Commonwealth Games."

The three Bermudians going to the Worlds in Montreal from July 17-31 will be rubbing shoulders with some of the biggest stars in the pool.

The large number of Olympic medallists present in Montreal this summer will make Ian Thorpe's decision not to come less noticed, especially given the presence of the top attraction, US star Michael Phelps, an eight-time medallist in Athens last year.

Dutch giant Pieter van den Hoogenband will also be there to give Phelps a hard time. Adding to that are Michael Klim of Australia in the freestyle races and American Aaron Peirsol, the Olympic and World Champion in the 100 and 200 backstroke.

Peirsol registered a pair of world records this spring at the US Trials. In the women's events, Australia's Leisel Jones, a two-time medallist in Athens, who also registered world records in the 100 and 200 breastroke at the Australian National Trials will clearly be one to watch. On the Australian team led by captain Grant Hackett, Jones will join three-time Olympic gold medal winner Jodie Henry and 50 freestyle bronze medallist and 4 x 100 m relay gold medallist Lisbeth Lenton. Laure Manoudou of France has also confirmed she will be in Montreal. The star from France has won three medals in Athens, including a gold medal in the 400 freestyle event. Montreal was in serious danger of having the Worlds taken away earlier this year. In fact FINA pulled the 2005 championships from the city because of local organisers failed to raise enough money.

But in the end the host city of the 1976 Olympics came up with the goods.

In February when the crisis was reaching its head in Canada the organisers said they were $5 million short of meeting their $30 million budget.

FINA said the unanimous decision of its 22-member executive bureau was made to maintain "the credibility of the World Championships."

Athens, the host of the 2004 Olympics, and Long Beach, California, were named as possible replacements.

Montreal would have been the first city to lose a major championship since London was dropped as host of the 2005 World Track and Field Championships in 2001 after plans for a national stadium were scrapped. Those championships were moved to Helsinki, Finland.

The Montreal event is expected to attracted 2,000 swimmers, coaches and officials to the Quebec city.

The last world championships were held in 2003 in Barcelona, Spain.