Jack Harvey now knows what it feels like to be victorious at the Olympic Games after winning his heat in the 100 metres backstroke in Paris.

Competing in heat one at the Aquatics Centre in Paris, Harvey touched the wall in 55.78sec, beating Alexis Kpade of Benin by 1.83sec, with Yazan Al Bawab, from Palestine, finishing third.

Harvey’s time was not enough to make it into the semi-finals as just 16 of the 46 competitors were guaranteed a second swim, but his effort ensured that he finished 39th overall.

Although delighted with his Olympics experience, Harvey was slightly disappointed as time was fractionally slower than the personal best he set when reaching the Bermuda Olympic Association’s qualifying time in May.

“Winning my heat in front of a packed stadium, there were no empty seats, was cool and seeing my family and friends in their Bermuda gear was amazing,” Harvey said.

It was nerve-racking but I knew the nerves were going to be there and I wasn’t surprised by that but I was hoping to swim faster.“

Heading into his heat, Harvey’s personal best was way faster than that of his rivals and he felt that having nobody to chase or push him to go faster prevented him from achieving a faster time.

“It just wasn’t there in the final 50 metres, Harvey said. ”The time for the first 50 was about the same as my personal best and qualifying time and when I did that there was someone in the lane next to me pushing me to go faster.

“This time I had no one to race and perhaps subconsciously that was in my mind.”

Despite not achieving the time he desired, Harvey has savoured the Olympic experience of representing Bermuda.

“It is definitely the experience of a lifetime,” he said. “It shows that it doesn’t matter if you are from a small country you can still achieve great things in sport.”

The young swimmer’s profile also received a boost as his merry band of supporters were featured on the BBC’s live blog on day two of the Olympic Games.

Matthew Henry, a journalist with leading British broadcaster BBC Sport, was so taken with Harvey’s friends and family all dressed in the pink of Bermuda that he was compelled to take a picture and inform more than 100,000 readers of the blog of Harvey’s exploits.

“Hopefully you'll forgive me for being a little shocked to see a group of pink shirts with Team Bermuda printed on when I arrived at La Defense,” Henry wrote.

They have travelled to support “best friends” Jack and Emma Harvey, who are two of the eight Bermuda athletes to qualify for these Olympics.

Jack swims this morning in the 100m backstroke (10:43 BST). Watch out for Britain's rising star Ollie Morgan in that one too.“

Elsewhere at the Olympics on Sunday, rower Dara Alizadeh finished third in Repechage 3 to just miss out on the Repechage quarter-finals.

Alizadeh knocked 13 seconds off his time in the heats, finishing third in the five-man heat in a time of 7:17:05 but finished behind Sid Ali Boudina, of Algeria, and Hin Chun Chiu, of Hong Kong, who secured the two available spots in the quarter-finals.

Alizadeh moves on to the E/F semi-finals on Monday.