National swim coach Ben Smith has hailed the recent Bermuda Amateur Swimming Association (BASA) Christmas camp which saw 45 swimmers take part.He said: “This year’s version of the camp was very successful. BASA had 45 swimmers sign up to do the camp this year with some swimmers doing the whole ten days of training while some did half of the camp and others did half days.“The weather was the worst that we have endured for the Christmas camp and at times it seemed as if we were crazy to have people swimming with driving rain, storm force winds and plunging temperatures”.“The swimmers stayed focused and trained hard throughout while learning through the experience of challenging practices. This year we had a sports psychologist talk to the group about focus, BCDS came in and talked about drug free sport, we had yoga sessions and hard core training.“After swimming over 90,000 metres over the course of the 10 day camp the swimmers were feeling fit and motivated.”On the last day the swimmers proved how hard they had worked when they competed in a time trial event where they raced as fast as they could in two events each.Smith added: “Out of the 62 swims that we had in the time trial 33 of them were personal best times for the swimmer. This was amazing after the grueling training schedule that they endured over the 10 days of the camp.”The highlights of the camp included 10-year-old Madelyn Moore dropping nearly 10 seconds from her best time in the 50 metre freestyle and made anA time. She followed this swim with a 2.48 second drop in the 100 back where she reached another A time.Shannon Botelho dropped two seconds in the 50m free where he reached an A time qualifying him to participate on the national training team and leaves him half qualified for Carifta 2011 which will be held in Barbados in April.In the 50 fly, Emma Harvey dropped a second from her previous best and made an A time.Jesse Washington dropped nearly two seconds in the 50m fly where he reaching his second A time standard which makes him eligible for selection to the Carifta team.