Don’t try telling 41-year-old Lisa Blackburn that competitive swimming is just for young people.In the company of teammates more than half her age, Blackburn brought home Bermuda’s first gold medal on the opening day of competition in the Central American and Caribbean Amateur Swimming Confederation in Costa Rica, then added a silver for good measure, as the team landed four medals from Monday evening’s finals.Blackburn took first place in the 100 metres breaststroke when she pulled away from the field and cruised to a comfortable victory. However, the veteran swimmer was not finished with her medal winning and came back later in the evening to win the silver in the 200 individual medley final where teammate Stephanie Myles, 20, finished seventh.Blackburn fell behind in the butterfly and backstroke but began to close the gap in the breaststroke, and by the time she reached the butterfly event the veteran swimmer was in third place. She moved into second place in the last 15 metres but ran out of ‘real estate’ and had to settle for the silver for her second medal of the evening.Myles won Bermuda’s second medal on the night when she placed third to take the silver in the 800 metres freestyle, coming extremely close to hitting a personal best time.First up in the finals was Shannon Hassell, 13, in the 100 backstroke, where she captured the silver. Hassell had a very strong race, hitting the turn in first place and holding that position until the last 15 metres when she ran into the lane line but was still able to race in to the finish to capture the silver medal. After her PB in the morning session where she dropped two seconds off her previous PB, Shannon lowered her time by two tenths of a second under Rebecca Sharpe’s record of 1:10.85 with her new time of 1:10.73.The Bermuda team finished the night off with Andrew Beveridge in the 200 IM. Beveridge was an alternate after the heats but was moved into the finals after a scratch. He used the opportunity to the fullest and finished in seventh place with a personal best time.After the morning session on Monday, Bermuda secured places in seven finals on the first night.Jesse Washington, 13, had an unfortunate slip off the wall at the start of the 100 metres backstroke that left him so far behind that he shut the race down to prepare for the 50 metres freestyle.“Jesse was prepared to hit the pool in the 50 free and had goals of reaching his Youth Olympic qualifying time but his start left him a body length behind the field,” national coach Ben Smith explained.“At the 30 metre mark he was in eighth place but he reeled the field in by the finish only to take fourth with the bronze one hundredths of a second out of his grasp. It is frustrating to know that he swam faster than his competitors but his start holds him back.”Added Smith: “After a great first day we are looking forward to the next four days of competition. We started off with Shannon Hassell in the 100 back where she swam 1:10.92 which dropped two seconds off her personal best time and had her placed third for the finals.“Jesse Washington was next up in the 100 back where he swam 1:07.63 to drop two seconds off his PB and put him into the finals. Ashley Irby rounded out the backstroke with a swim of 1:20.70 which is just off from her PB she set last week at Coral Springs. This is the first experience at this level of competition for Ashley and she will learn a lot from her races as well as from her teammates who are encouraging her all the time.”Irby, 11, is the youngest member of the Bermuda team.Competition is taking place in the Maria Del Milagro Paris pool in Sanaba, an eight-lane, 50 metre pool. Some 19 countries from the Caribbean, Central America and South America are participating in the event.