Roy-Allan Burch wrote his ticket for the Pan Am Games in Rio de Janeiro this July with a superb swim yesterday in the 100 metres freestyle at the FINA World Swimming Championships in Melbourne.

Stuck in the first heat with a "No Time" seeding, Burch was off the blocks with a world-class reaction time of 0.64 seconds before powering through the first 50 metres in 24.62 seconds and finishing the race in a time of 52.40.

This surpassed the qualifying standard of 52.54 seconds and also set a new Bermuda record to boot — eclipsing the previous time established by Ronald Cowen in the Manchester Commonwealth Games by 9/100ths of a second.

His local club coach, Ben Smith was delighted.

"That's called taking advantage of an opportunity," he said.

"Roy has worked very hard during the college season and I am very pleased that he could extend his competitive season into this Championship.

"That was great swimming by Roy and I can hardly wait to see what he will put up in the 50".

Burch swims the 50 metre freestyle — which is his speciality — tomorrow Down Under.