Marleigh Howes broke the 200 metres butterfly age-group record that had stood for 42 years at the Bermuda Amateur Swimming Association Winter Age Group Championships on Saturday night.

Howes, 17, broke the short-course record set in 1983 by Mary Mowbray, by 0.43sec, touching the wall in 2min 26.89sec to set a new best in the 17-18 age group at the National Sports Centre pool on Saturday night.

The achievement was one that Howes had set her sights on for a couple of weeks.

“I planned on breaking it just two weekends ago,” Howes said.

“I looked at the record with my mum while I was at school, and it felt like I could definitely break it. I wasn’t really tapered and rested for it but I just thought I’d give it a go and see how it went.

“It feels pretty good to have broken it because I feel like I haven't broken a record since I was aged about 10, so it’s good to know I'm getting somewhere.”

These are exciting times for Howes, who recently committed to McGill University in Montreal, Canada.

I'm super excited to be going there,” she said. “I went on a visit and absolutely loved the people, the school and the city. I’m really excited because they're training me more in sprint fly, which is where I want to be headed right now.

“My freestyle has always been my focus, but going into more fly will definitely improve my freestyle. I’m so excited to be part of a university team.”

Howes competed for Bermuda at the Junior Pan American Games and is ready for more international competition.

“I’ve got one more year of eligibility for Carifta,” Howes said. “Commonwealth Games and CAC Games is also a possibility next year.

“I’m planning on taking a bit of a break before I go to university but hopefully I can eventually go to the Olympics once Emma Harvey and all of them have given it up.

National swimming coach Ben Smith was delighted with Howes’s record-breaking effort and is predicting some big things for her future.

“Marley sent me a message a couple of weeks ago and put this target out there and to achieve it is great,” Smith said.

“But I think she’s just scratching the surface of what she can do. Her stroke looks really good and I'm excited about what she’s going to do at McGill as she’s definitely one of the swimmers who could be on track for the Olympics in the future.

“We have a good block of female swimmers and a good block of male swimmers that are driving each other and that is exciting because a lot of times at this point we only have a couple of people that are in that spot.

“A group of competitors is what takes people to the next level and that is what it’s all about. The good thing about the way technology works is that now they can all watch each other, see somebody going faster than them and that pushes you on in training.

“But the really cool part is that they all get along with each other because they’ve grown up together, so it’s going to be really exciting to see what they do.”

Howes was not the only record-breaker in action on Saturday night with Connor Hupman beating Brandon Adkins’s best in the 100 metres backstroke. The old record was 58:11, with Hupman shaving off 0.18sec to set the new time to beat of 27.93 in the boys 15-16 age group.