Two of the Island’s top young swimmers fly to Hawaii next week hoping to shatter yet more local records at the Pan-Am Pacific Championships in Maui.

Only a few months after their impressive performances at the World Youth Championships in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in August, 15-year-olds Rebecca Sharpe and Nick Thompson have once again been preparing rigorously for another high-calibre international event.

Under the guidance of swim coach Ben Smith, the Warwick Academy duo spent six straight days in the pool over the Christmas holidays, putting in 55,000 metres of grind at the Saltus pool as part of an exhausting training camp.

Backstroke expert Sharpe, who along with her travelling companion competes locally for Sharks Swim Club, is the current record-holder in her age group in both the 100 and 200 metres, with a best time in the former distance of one minute, 9.53 seconds which she set in Brazil.

Sharpe will compete in the 100, 200 and 300 metres backstroke in Hawaii while freestyle sprinter Thompson, who boasts a best 100 metres time of 57.91 seconds, will compete in the 50 and 100 metres freestyle and the 100 and 200 metres backstroke — a discipline in which he is also highly-rated.

“Both Rebecca and Nick have been working incredibly hard in training and are looking in fantastic shape,” said coach Smith.

The idea of the training camp was to really push them, almost to breaking point, and then give them a decent lay-off in the run-up to the meet so by the time they start they should be at their peak and swimming their fastest.

“This event has come along very early in the season for us. Usually we’re looking to prepare swimmers for meets later on in the year,” commented Smith.

“But this is one of the most prestigious meets in the region and they’re both going to be coming up against many of the world’s best swimmers in their age group.

“It’s not that realistic in an event of this calibre to expect local swimmers to medal, but I would not be at all surprised if we see some local records.

“From our perspective, this meet is a great building block for later in the year when we compete in events like the Island Games (in July) and the Carifta Games (in April) where medals are much more likely.”