Members of Bermuda's swimming team for the Pan-Am Games may yet miss out on the competition despite meeting the qualifying standards, The Royal Gazette has learned.

Those in the four-strong squad for Winnipeg -- three of whom are competing in a meet in Buffalo, New York, this week -- are on tenterhooks this morning waiting to hear whether they will be given the all-clear to compete in their events in Canada later this month.

The problem has arisen because of bureaucratic difficulties at two associations involved in the Games: the Amateur Swimming Union of the Americas (ASUA) which, in turn, controls access to the Pan American Swimming Organisation.

The latter have put a cap on the number of swimmers allowed to participate at 220 -- and nobody knows at this stage how many from the various nations have applied to compete.

Richard Goodwin, Bermuda's senior co-ordinating coach, said: "It could be 600 or as low as 150 as it was for the last Pan-Am Games.'' Ironically, the Island's representatives -- Matthew Hammond, Ronald Cowen, Stephen Troake and Stephen Fahy -- could be penalised despite Bermuda's swiftness off the mark.

Bermuda were one of the few nations to submit their team to the ASUA by the original deadline, while several other countries have been dragging their feet, making it impossible for the organisation to confirm acceptance.

Goodwin said: "I spoke to ASUA on Friday and they said they wished every Federation had been as speedy in informing them of their needs.'' He added: "It's very unfortunate, but we've made a point of informing the individuals it could affect and their immediate families and everybody is aware of the situation.

"I'm sitting here on tenterhooks. It's really unfair to have to wait and have these hurdles to cross before we can focus on the events.'' Cowen, Hammond and Troake are among a team of 11 competing against swimmers from the north east US and Canada in Buffalo this week; Fahy has remained at university under the direction of his coach there as he works on his speciality, the 200m individual medley.

Cowen, in particular, is looking to the Pan-Am Games to make up for the disappointment of missing last September's Commonwealth Games following a serious bike accident.

A total of four records had been broken when the weekend's Summer Age Group Championships finally wound up at the BASA pool on Sunday night.

As reported in yesterday's Gazette , Matthew Hammond smashed his Pan-Am Games' team-mate Stephen Troake's national 200 metre backstroke mark with a time of 2:11.05 while Kiera Aitken set a new over-15 girls' 200m backstroke record of 2:32.35.

Also among the records was Ashley Aitken who won the 13-14 50 metres freestyle in 28.03 -- seven hundredths of a second faster than the mark set last year by her elder sister Kiera.

And for the second time this year, 12 year-old Stephen Kenny broke his own record in the 200 metres butterfly, this time by a whopping five seconds, with a time of 2:53.82.

Among those to achieve `AAA' standards were Anastasia Lau, Ashley and Kiera Aitken, Scott Simmons, Roy-Allan Burch, Graham Smith, Matthew Hammond and Ronald Cowen.

Individual age group champions were: Girls 8 and under: Eleanor Gardner; Boys eight and under: Justin Collis; Girls 9-10: Elizabeth Brewin; Boys 9-10: Andrew Nicholl; Girls 11-12: Anastasia Lau; Boys 11-12: Stephen Kenny; Girls 13-14: Ashley Aitken; Boys 13-14: Scott Simmons; Girls 15 and over: Kiera Aitken; Boys 15 and over: Ronald Cowen.