over the weekend.

Fahy, who has already booked his place in September's Olympic Games, broke a national record, while Troake fell just short in the first of his two bids to qualify for Sydney.

Troake received a special invitation to take part in the Bahamas National Championships. But according to national swimming coach Richard Goodwin, he failed in his attempt to reach the Olympic qualifying time in one of his target events, the 100 metres freestyle.

He later tried again in the 50 metres freestyle and whether he made the qualifying time was unknown at the time of going to press, as Troake was in transit yesterday.

Meanwhile Fahy, swimming for Yale University in his first meet of the season, finished third in the 400 metres individual medley in a new Bermuda national record time of four minutes, 43 seconds.

And there was a further boost for Fahy in the event at Rutgers University, New Jersey, in that he bagged first place in the 200 metres IM, one of his two Olympic disciplines.

The meet was an exhausting exercise for the 22-year-old, who swam the 100 breaststroke, the 200 IM, 400 freestyle, 100 backstroke, 400 IM, 200 breaststroke and 100 butterfly. Heats followed by finals meant he had to swim each of the seven events twice in the three days.

"Things went pretty well,'' said Fahy. "I swam my best times ever for the first meet of the season when not rested or in shape and that usually makes four or five seconds' difference.'' Fahy has put his final semester on hold at Yale to concentrate fully on preparing himself for Sydney. Working with his coach Frank Keefe, coach of the 1984 US Olympic team, he has been happy with the progress he has made.

Last summer, he stayed over at Yale instead of spending his summer holidays at home, continued training with Keefe and achieved great success.

"This summer is tougher than last year,'' said Fahy. "Last year there was just me, this time there are six of us. We're doing two-and-a-half hours in the mornings and two hours at night.'' One of those six, George Gleason of the US Virgin Islands, will be joining Fahy in Sydney.

Fahy's next meet is the Long Island Grand Prix next month.