Lisa Blackburn qualified for next month's CAC Games over the weekend at the National Swimming Championships at the BASA pool.

And in doing so the swimmer, who has won medals for Canada at the Pan-Am and Commonwealth Games, managed to lowered her preliminary time by half a second and break Anastasia Lau's open 50 metres breaststroke record on her way to capturing the gold medal.

Blackburn followed that performance with an even better swim in the 100 breaststroke in which she broke a record set in 1992 by Jennifer Smatt.

Ben Smith, aquatics manager and national coach, said: "Lisa is rounding into top form just in time for the upcoming overseas meets.

"In the past Lisa swam for Canada and was a medallist at both the Pan-Am and Commonwealth Games. We are happy to have her in our programme and looking forward to what she will be able to do in the upcoming meets."

Not surprisingly Blackburn finished the weekend off by winning the high points trophy for women.

Smith said: "We had our Carifta medallists, elite athletes, Commonwealth Games team and future swimming stars all competing on the weekend.

Roy-Allan Burch was back from his training programme in Germany and he brought some of his team-mates back to give our swimmers some more competition."

"There were also guest swimmers from Canada and the US who all helped push "our local swimmers to even faster times. Finally, we were also excited to see some of our Masters swimmers participating as well as some of our former elite swimmers that showed that the pool is a great equaliser when it comes to age."

One of the highlights on the opening evening came in the men's 1500 metres in which Mitch Gariepy and Tyler Smith battled it out. Smith finished first but Gariepy continued to rewrite the record books in his age group by dropping 44 seconds from the record that he set back in March.

One of the biggest successes of the weekend were the relay events.

Smith added: "This year, relays were added to the Nationals and they have been a resounding success.

"There was lots of excitement and fast swims with the added incentive of swimming for your team. The medley relay was on the cards and Harbour Swim Club set records with their girls 9 and10 team and the 11and12 team.

"The 11and12 girls only held the record for a few hours as the team from Sharks came back to shatter that mark in the finals.

:Sharks teams also captured records in the 13 and14 girls, 17 and18 boys and the senior girls and boys set pool records.

"All of these teams set the records in the morning heats and then lowered them in the finals.

"Roy Burch swam an impressive 51 seconds for the 100 free considering the gruelling training schedule that he is on in preparation for CISC and CAC Games.

"We also were pleased to see some familiar names back in the pool swimming very well in the finals. Graham Smith, who is a past elite level swimmer for Bermuda, gave Julian Fletcher a fight in the breaststroke and our past Olympian Ian Raynor was back giving Roy some competition in the 50 fly."

On the final day the meet continued to showcase some fast swims.

The attack on the records continued with young Gariepy bettering his own 200 IM record and the good form of the medley relay teams from the previous day continued in the freestyle as they set and reset those freestyle records.

The 100 butterfly for men was the highlight of the final night weith a battle for first place between Denzel Wellman and Nick Patterson, the latter edging out his rival at the finish.Patterson's time was a new 15 and16 year-old record which he took from Wellman.

In the same race, Gariepy lowered the mark of Stephen Fahey from 1988.

While Blackburn won the high point trophy for the women, it was Jason Mastalir who collected the men's high point trophy.

Smith said: "This weekend was a great highlight of Bermuda swimming. Many thanks go out to our sponsor CCS and to the swim committee that helped to organise such a successful meet with our overseas competitors adding such great competition for our swimmers.

"Having our top athletes at home competing in front of their home crowd is always exciting and they performed well with the added expectations.

"This bodes well for the upcoming overseas meets where we hope to see them perform even better. This meet highlighted some of our upcoming talent in the younger age groups.

"This was an open competition that had a qualifying standard so they had to step up to qualify and at the meet they stepped up further against the older, more senior swimmers.

"Even more noteworthy was the spontaneous mentoring by the older swimmers, offering advice and encouragement to these younger swimmers, who are the future of the sport of swimming in Bermuda. Great job to all the swimmers that participated over the weekend and special praise for Lisa for hitting her qualifying time!"