Bermuda were hoping to pick up more medals heading into the final evening's competition at the Carifta Swimming Championships in Jamaica last night.

And coach Ben Smith said that top youngster Emma Franklin could add to her two bronze medals she has already won in the 50 and 100 metres backstroke.

Smith said from Jamaica yesterday: "Emma is in tonight's final for the 200 backstroke. We also have Benedict Parfitt in the final of the 50 metres free and he also broke the (Bermuda) record of Nick Thomson."

Thomson last year made the big leap to qualifying for the World Championships in Rome.

"We have Rebecca Heyliger in tonight's final of the 50 metres free and Morgan Hopkins has qualified for the final of the 100 metres breaststroke."

Smith said that a number of Bermuda swimmers had achieved personal bests at the meet which is being staged at Jamaica's National Stadium pool in Kingston.

Of 14-year-old Franklin, Smith said: "Emma is coming into her own now.

"We have seen her improvements over the years and this past year she has been training really hard looking at what she can do at this meet.

She also made her qualifying time for Caribbean Island Swimming Championships (CISCs) which will be held in Cuba at the beginning of July. Those championships are another step up from the meet here – it is a lot bigger."

Smith has seen a number of Bermuda's national swimmers graduate from the Carifta Championships.

"This is the next group. We had a bunch of them that graduated out of this meet last year and this is the next group to come along. Last year we had Rebecca Sharpe, Julian Fletcher and Nick Thomson graduate and I would say that this group is really good."

Sharpe, Fletcher and Thomson all represented Bermuda at the FINA World Championships in Rome last year.

"We also have Somer Froud here and this is her first time (at Carifta). She is in the 11-12 years old age group and she has pbs in every one of her events and she still has another another year in that age group.

"Initially we look for our swimmers to get pbs and then we look to see who can get into the finals and after that it is to see who can get to the podium."

On Sunday in Jamaica Bermuda had three swimmers make the finals for the second night of the meet.

Rebecca Heyliger swam a personal best time in the 50 metres butterfly to finish seventh.

The senior girls team of Heyliger, Hopkins, Nicole Yearwood and Stephanie Myles swam a very good relay in the 4x100 metres medley and finished in seventh position. On Monday Heyliger and Yearwood came up a little short in the girls 15-17 age group 100 metres freestyle and finished ninth and 10th with only eight spots available in the final.

Nick Patterson had a strong swim in the 200 metres butterfly where he set a new 15-16 year age group record.

Parfitt, in his first Carifta meet, was able to drop lots of time in his 200 metres individual medley (IM) and also shattered the age group record.

Both of the boys are at the bottom of their age group and consequently have found it tough to get into the finals, but as they will have two more years at this meet, they are sure to prosper and improve.