Outside the Beijing Aquatics Centre, a violent electric storm sent spectators and officials scurrying for cover.

Inside, in the first heat of the evening, Kiera Aitken was providing the fireworks.

While the majority of those in the stands on Sunday night wouldn't have realised it, Aitken, at 24, was enjoying the finest swim of her career, not only winning her heat but slicing one and a half seconds off her own national record. In the 100 metres backstroke, that represents an astonishing improvement.

Now it's the turn of her team-mate Roy Allen Burch.

Diving into the same pool tonight, he knows he's got a tough act to follow.

But like Aitken, he's been competing almost his entire life and is determined to make his first Olymipcs an occasion to remember.

He, too, realises that advancing to the semi-finals of an Olympic meet, especially in a blue riband event such as the 100 metres freestyle which, on this occasion, will include 64 swimmers including French world record holder Alain Bernard (47.5), is out of the question.

Just 16 from that list will move on.

The 22-year-old holds Bermuda's national record - a time of 52.40 set at the Worlds in Melbourne, Australia, in 2006 and he reckons he can go much lower.

"I really want to break 51 seconds," he said after a final training session.

"I think that's a reasonable goal, but I definitely want to swim a personal best.

"I think I'm much better now than when I broke the last record. I did that about a year and a half ago and I have not had any too many great opportunities to improve.

"In the last year I've got in a lot more training, better weight training, better dry land training, which has lately been the key thing for all of the top swimmers.

"All of that, I hope, will get my time down."

But, as with young triathlete Flora Duffy, the Springfield College, Massachussets student says his goal has always been the 2012 Games in London.

"Olympics is always something that you keep at the back of your mind as an athlete but it's really a hard goal to get to and takes a lot of work but I think I have put in enough time to be here this time," he added.

"I'm looking at this as a way to get more experience in order to get to this level and get to the next Games.

"London is definitely the goal. I'm actually in the process now of trying to find a place to train and perform like no other Bermudian has done before. That's my target.

"Here, I just want to feel the energy of the meet. At the next Games, I'll be aiming to go much further than the heats."

Following a meeting with Colin Jones on the US team, there remains a possibility that Burch could join a top swim team in North Carolina when he finishes his last semester at college.

"My ambition is definitely to go full-time swimmer. But it's all about the funding. I can't wait for Bermuda to do that, I'll do it myself.

"It's something I want to do, no matter what.

"I've just been scratching the surface. I've been doing it for so long, I want to get deeper into it.

"Here, I would say I'm just a standard athlete. I'd like to be here as an elite athlete."

In Beijing, Burch has no bigger fan than swim team manager Martin Allen who has watched the swimmer's progress over a number of years.

"The Worlds in Melbourne, I think, gave Roy a new lease of life," says Allen.

"It really increased his desire to go further and having the opportunity this time to come to the Olympics, it's excited him.

"And it's not like, ok, I've come to the Olympics, I've arrived, that's it.

"Roy has got this four-year programme in mind, without doubt, whereby he knows this is just a stepping stone . . . I'll get the experience, do my absolute best and then go forward from there.

"He's totally focused."