National Swimming Championships to be held June 19-21 at the BASA Pool.

Joel Thomas, a member of the 1992 United States Olympic team, heads the list of entrants and will be joined by fellow Floridian, Todd Pace along with seven swimmers representing Brevard, a highly regarded swimming academy.

"This will be a great opportunity for the Bermuda swimmers to compete against outside opposition,'' said spokesperson Gillian Farge. "It's surprising how their times can improve when they come up against stronger competition''.

Many of the local participants will be gunning for the qualifying standard set for the Caribbean Age Group Championships which take place in Trinidad next month. Nine have already met standards in various events and await final approval for the trip south.

Two, 12-year-old William Massey and 17-year-old Craig Roberts recently surpassed qualifying marks at the final Spring Meet last Saturday -- Massey in both the 50 metres and 100 metres freestyle and Roberts in the 100 metres breastroke. They join Steven Fahy, Trevor Ferguson, Sean Smatt, Trevor Nelson, Nicholas Van De Weg and Jenny and Tiffany Gosling.

Also excelling was Chris Flook, who recorded a quad `A' time of one minute 5.89 seconds in the 100m breastroke. And top female swimmer Jenny Smatt achieved triple `A' times in the 200m individual medley and 100m breastroke.

The National Championships provides the last chance of qualifying for the Caribbean Age Group Championships and will see action geting underway on Friday night with several races scheduled followed by heats Saturday morning and finals the same night. The same is true for Sunday with a number of heats early on followed by the finals.

Bermudian senior, Christopher Smith established new Ontario and Canadian Masters records in the 50 metres freestyle during a swim meet at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario over the weekend.

Competing in the 60-64 age group, Smith swam the long course event in 32.46 seconds, three-quarters of a second faster than the previous record.

Currently residing in Toronto, where he took up Masters swimming three years ago as a member of the North York YMCA masters swim team, Smith also won seven gold medals at the Ontario Master's Championship in April and four more at the Canadian Masters Championship held at Saint John, New Brunswick.

Smith, of Warwick Parish, will be home on the island during July and August to officiate at several BASA swim meets and also plans to take part in the Trunk Island Swim on August 16.