modern international swimming history at the Caribbean and Central American Age Group Championships in Havana, Cuba, last night.

Just hours after destroying the 200 metres individual medley national record in the heats, Fahy went some ways better in the final to capture the silver medal and end Bermuda's barren run.

After a blistering breaststroke segment, Fahy was in first place entering the final freestyle leg but was just touched out by hometown favourite Nasser Beut in a thrilling finish.

For his marvellous effort, Fahy had to settle for second place and his second record of the day -- two minutes, 7.99 seconds -- some 10 seconds better than his personal best going into the meet.

At daybreak, Stanley Harris's 2:17.65 set at the Commonwealth Games in Victoria, Canada, three years ago was looking good.

But Fahy crushed that by almost four seconds when he turned in 2:13.71 in the heats to give some notice of what was to come.

National coach Gareth Davies ranked Fahy's final swim with the sterling performances of Chris Flook in the 100 breast to win silver at the CAC Games, Jenny Smatt's 100 breast to finish sixth at the Pan-Am Games, and the incomparable 4x100 relay team of Mike Cash, Craig Morbey, Ian Raynor and Geri Mewett who excelled at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

As for Fahy, he could barely walk -- so much effort he put into his `swim of swims' -- waiting several minutes before heading for the warm-down pool.

Virtually overshadowed by Fahy's brilliance was Alicia Mullan's 800 freestyle national record, also set in an evening final.

Mullan clocked 9:52.48, a mere one-and-a-half seconds off the mark she established last year in Puerto Rico but not good enough to get into medal contention. Still, it took the number of national records at the championships to eight.

Earlier, outside of Fahy's heroics, Matthew Hammond continued to excel.

Hammond, who was a member of the Island's 15-17 freestyle relay team which set a new record on Sunday night and also cracked Geri Mewett's old age group mark in the 15-18 200m freestyle heats, went one better in the pool on Tuesday.

In the 200m final he swam 2:00.21 to smash the national record of 2:00.56 set by Mike Cash at the Pan-Am Games in the same Havana pool in 1991. Hammond's time earned him fifth place in the final.

The 13-14 freestyle relay team also earned a place in the final after clocking 3:59.56. Paul Fox led the way with a split of 57.34 while Jimmy Pereira clocked 59.36, Graham Smith 1:01.20 and Andrew Shaw 1:01.56.

Tamika Williams, meanwhile, swam in the final of the 18-21 200m freestyle, posting a personal best of 2:21.9 and missing the national record by just six tenths of a second.

And the boys 15-17 relay team of Hammond (back), Trevor Nelson (breast), Ronald Cowen (butterfly) and Stephen Troake (free) placed seventh in the final of the 4x100 individual medley.

Competition is due to wind up this evening.