Jason Mastalir led the way as Bermuda re-wrote the record books and made a storming start to the CARIFTA Swimming Championships in Aruba yesterday.

Mastalir smashed Michael Cash's long-standing 1500 metres freestyle record, while Morgan Hopkins, Stephanie Myles and Ashley Yearwood also wrote their names into the history books.

Cash set the previous 1500m freestyle record of 17 minutes 30.46 seconds at the Commonwealth Games in Auckland in 1990. But Mastalir crushed that by a whopping 30 seconds, coming in with a time of 16:59.93.

It was also a new CARIFTA record for the 17-18 age group, erasing the previous best time by almost a minute. Mastalir's swim saw him breeze through the heats and easily take first place for the final.

Hopkins was in equally blistering form in the 200m breaststroke, knocking seven seconds off her own personal best and setting a new record for the 13-14 age group with a time of 2:50.25. She easily claimed first place for the final, with a commanding eight seconds lead.

Myles had a great start to her long course season in the 15 to 17 age group, as she won her heat in the 800 freestyle in a time of 9:50.26. This time was a new age group and Bermuda record, beating the previous best of 9:52.48 set by Alicia Mullan in 1997 in Cuba.

Ashley Yearwood, competing in the 13 to 14 age group, clipped almost three seconds from her own record in the 100m butterfly. In the same event and age group for boys, Nick Patterson also improved on his age group record.

Wrapping up the records for yesterday, Nick Thomson set a new mark in the boys' 17 to 18 age group 50 metres backstroke in a time of 28.77 seconds.