Bermuda's swimmers recorded their finest ever performance at the sixth Latin American and Caribbean Masters Swimming Championships (LatyCar) in San Jose, Costa Rica.

As was anticipated, the Island added to their medal total with two gold, three silver and two bronze, leaving the team in fifth place overall out of a total of 76 teams participating in the event.

Chris Smith again took the honours in the 65-69 age group, bringing his meet performance to a perfect six golds in six events.

Annette Budge, in the 30-34 age group, mirrored Smith's performance both in the Open Water and in stroking to a perfect six for six record.

Unsurprisingly, Smith and Budge took home the Top Swimmer Award for their respective age group.

Lead by these two swimmers Bermuda finished with an official medal count of 22 gold, 16 silver and 21 bronze.

This total would have been even more impressive had the two strongest events for Bermuda - the 1,500m and one hour for distance - been counted in the official totals.

Due to the time taken to swim both the 1500m and one hour events, these races are swum in the home country and mailed in.

The Bermuda programme is more heavily focused on longer distance and endurance than most of the other teams, and as a result eight gold, six silver and two bronze could have been added to the official medal table, moving Bermuda up to fourth place.

While clearly Smith and Budge were the superstars of the meet, the team was also significantly aided by Duncan Newby's all around performance.

With three gold and three silver medals Newby looked very much in control of his stroke in the pool.

While Bermuda Masters Swimming is unfortunate to be losing Newby back to England after 12 years on the Island, his monumental contributions to Masters swimming will remain.

Fortunately, due to LatyCar grandfathering rules, Newby will remain eligible to compete on the Bermuda team, so it is hoped to have his ongoing involvement both in and out of the pool.

Other swimmers producing memorable results included Trevor Nichols, with two silver and four bronze in his first ever Masters Swim meet at the tender age of 69, Karen Bruton, who in between white water rafting excursions found time to haul in two golds, a silver and a bronze, and Kris Cash, who in spite of being six months pregnant grabbed four gold and one silver.

All in all this meet should serve as a good springboard for hopefully even better things two years from now at edition seven of LatyCar.