Claim and counterclaim have been made by an Island swimming coach and the sport's governing body over the way qualifying standards have been set for this year's Pan-Am Games.

Coach Kathy Cowen, who oversees the training of top swimmers Ronald Cowen and Kiera Aitken among others, says she was only recently informed of rules which stipulate that her athletes must qualify twice and swim a comparable time within two months of the qualifying deadline before being awarded spots for the event to be held in the Dominican Republic in August.

Cowen alleges that she was told the news at a coaches' meeting in the past fortnight, but that Bermuda Amateur Swimming Association had been informed as long ago as August of last year. Prior to that she said she was of the belief that meeting one qualifying time was enough.

"I was first notified of the Bermuda Olympic Association changes in qualifying standards at that meeting by the BASA president Ian Gordon and coach Richard Goodwin," she said.

"That was the first time that we were made aware that Ronald will have to re-qualify. He actually met the standard at the last Commonwealth Games."

Part of the problem, Cowen said, centres around the conflict between metre and yard meets.

Kiera Aitken and international team-mate Graeme Smith are both at school in Canada and their meets are held in metres. However, Cowen and fellow Bermudian Roy-Allan Burch are in the US and primarily swim in yards.

"Fortunately, Kiera has unknowingly met the new standard," Cowen said. "It's good for her but unfortunately Ronald and Roy-Allan are studying in the US and their competitions are held in yards. The BOA no longer recognises conversion times from yards to metres.

"Having not received the information until this late date, this has the potential to spell disaster for the athletes."

Cowen said she had a copy of the letter sent to BASA outlining the criteria.

"It was sent to all sports national governing bodies in August of 2002 - six months ago," she said. "It went to swimming and obviously Ian Gordon and Richard were privy to it.

"This letter outlines the schedule with dates to submit intended participants, dates to submit qualifying standards and it notes the time period to achieve the standards.

"I cannot begin to guess to why the information regarding the new qualification criteria was not passed on to the athletes and the coaches.

"The effect of BASA not passing on the information to their athletes won't be known until June 30, 2003, which is the qualifying deadline."

Cowen said her swimmers now had four months to meet the standards and their schedules would have to be altered accordingly.

"Ronald's time was a pb (personal best) and a national record," said Cowen. "I think he will do the time again. The only problem for he and Roy is that they are training in the US. If you are training in Canada you are getting metre meets; if you are training in the US you are getting yard meets.

"The plan for Ronald was, since he was qualified, to continue to train at a very hard level and not to taper until he was ready to come back to Bermuda and perform in the summer.

"Now we have to rearrange his training programme and rearrange his meet schedule so that he has the opportunity to qualify."

However, BASA president Gordon disputes Cowen's claims.

"As far as the Pan-Am Games qualification standards are concerned, the Bermuda Amateur Swimming Association submitted those standards to the BOA for ratification on December 4, 2002.

"All the coaches, I believe, have been adequately consulted and all of the coaches bar one, which I believe is Mrs. Cowen, are supportive of the standards and are satisfied that they have been advised in adequate time of what those standards are likely to be."

Gordon said Cowen had had the same notice as everyone else within the swimming community, both in Bermuda and overseas.

"We have had no negative feedback from any other areas," he said.

Gordon said this was not the first time that BASA had been in conflict with Cowen.

"I would say that Mrs. Cowen, certainly during my tenure as the president, has had more issues with the BASA executive and the administration of swimming than other coaches," he said.

Gordon said BASA followed strict criteria when it came to standards.

"We are extremely diligent in reviewing historical information and data to ensure that we are not sending swimmers who are ill-prepared for example to the Olympics, the World Championships or the Pan-Am Games.

"The standards are going up all the time and we don't set our qualifying standards on who we think may qualify locally. We set them based on statistical data and the way that standards are being raised on a global basis.

"It's only fair to our swimmers to take this approach."

But Gordon said he was confident the matter could be sorted out.

"I think everything can be resolved amicably," he said. "It takes two parties who apply logic, common sense, goodwill and sometimes the ability to compromise. But for the Bermuda Amateur Swimming Association the better interests of the sport are always the primary objective."