A total of 25 records were broken at the National Swimming Championships last weekend.

Kiera Aitken, returning from her training base in Barcelona, started the process last Friday night with an excellent swim in the 800 metres freestyle, recording a time of nine minutes, 19.21 seconds to set a new Bermuda record.

Aitken also established her supremacy in four other events, sweeping all of the backstroke races as well as the 100m freestyle.Roy-Allan Burch also showed great form in winning the 50 and 100 metres freestyle events and placing second in the 50 metres backstroke.

Burch is to travel to Fort Lauderdale in Florida for further long course training, prior to joining Aitken at the Pan Ams in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The Island Games team set a total of 13 age group records.

Lara Loescher established new marks in the 50 metres breaststroke, the 200 metres individual medley and in her signature event, the 50 metres freestyle.

Loescher has now won this freestyle event for the past three years. Nick Thomson also earned three new records, displaying his sprint ability in 50 metres in freestyle, butterfly and backstroke. Eleanor Gardner also broke the previous Bermuda record in the 800 metres freestyle, in setting a new age group record.

But she saved her best effort for Sunday night in winning the 200 metres freestyle event and taking almost four seconds off of her previous best.

Rebecca Sharpe set new records in the 50 and 200 metres backstroke, her 200 effort eclipsing her old record by more than four seconds.

Her team-mate Julian Fletcher also set two new records in the 50 and 200 metres breaststroke.

Nicole Yearwood rounded out this team’s efforts with a new age group record in the 100 metres butterfly and also qualified for the Canadian Age Group Nationals in Montreal with a very fine swim in the 50 metres backstroke. Yearwood’s younger sister Ashley will also be competing at the Canadian Age Group Nationals and displayed superb form as she broke her own 11 and 12 year-old age group records in the 50 and 100 metres butterfly and the 400 metres freestyle.

The top record breaker of the weekend was Jason Mastalir, who will be joining the Yearwood sisters at the Montreal meet.

He set new marks in the 200, 400 and 1,500 metres freestyle events, as well as the 200 metres individual medley. His best swim also came in the 200 metres freestyle as he won the event and successfully dipped under the two-minute mark for the very first time.

The final two records of the meet were set by Michael O’Connor as he equalled the Bermuda record in the 50 metres butterfly held by Olympian Stephen Fahy, while Benedict Parfitt improved on his own age group record in the 1,500 metres freestyle.