To judge success simply on medals won would be an injustice to Bermuda's athletes, who can return to the Island proud of their performances at the 2007 Pan-Am Games in Rio.

At the highest level of competition many achieved personal bests, shattered national records and delivered displays beyond their initial expectations.

Take 17-year-old Arantxa King - arguably the Island's standout athlete - who came eighth in the women's long jump final in her Pan-Am debut.

In front of a partisan crowd at the Joao Havelange Stadium and against some athletes nearly twice her age, King achieved a season's best distance to fulfill her remit of a top eight finish, once again proving she can hold her own at the top level.

Swimmers Kiera Aitken and Roy Allan Burch may not have qualified for a final but both broke national records to ensure their Games can also be deemed a success.

They may not have threatened the podium but two athletes who arrived in Rio both searching for confidence boosting finishes were Flora Duffy and Tyler Butterfield.

The pair who were voted Bermuda's male and female athletes of year have been plagued by fatigue related illness and endured turbulent season's.

Despite being tipped for a potential podium place teenage triathlete Duffy publicly jettisoned any medal hopes because of her poor recent form.

And while she may still be missing her "fifth gear" the 19-year-old earned a respectable 12th place finish, suggesting the worst of her troubles are now behind her.

Professional cyclist Butterfield also enjoyed a positive performance finishing less than a second behind the race winner in 32nd in a bottlenecked race.

The 24-year-old now aims to resurrect his career with Team Slipstream and secure a second season with the pro outfit.

Bowler David Maycock also got to grips with the synthetic surface of Barra Bowling's lanes to qualify for the men's individual 8s.

With Bermuda's lanes made from wood, the entire bowling team faced an uphill struggle and are hoping synthetic surface lanes can be installed at their training HQ in Warwick.

An elated Annabelle Collins celebrated claiming a top-10 spot in the dressage in her Pan-Am debut, while showjumper Patrick Nisbett finished a steady 17th.

Fellow showjumper Jill Terceira showed true character to recover from a dismal first outing which ended her hopes of a top ten finish, to ride a clear round on the final day of the competition.

But the main disappointment of the Games was Bermuda's hotly-tipped sailors with none of the contingent qualifying for the medal round.

Malcolm Smith's absence was a shock with the former world champion unable to follow up the silver medal he won four years ago at Pan-Am in the Dominican Republic.

Maybe the fact the sailing endured a number of postponements to races had an adverse effect in allowing him to find rhythm.

Bermuda's chef de mission Phillip Guishard described the Games as a "positive experience" for the athletes and praised Rio for their job as hosts.

"I believe we had good representation and encouraging performances in some of the events," he said.

"I also believe Rio did a reasonably good job as hosts.

But if these Games are to be used as a pre-curser for the 2016 Olympics they will need to provide more English speaking assistance which was a real problem."