Bermuda coach Ben Smith was delighted by his team’s performance at the Central American and Caribbean Swimming Championships in Mexico last week.

The talented young squad returned to the island with 11 medals, including two golds, two silvers and seven bronzes, much to the delight of Smith.

“It was a good result considering the level of the competition and to finish seventh overall out of the countries was a really good result,’’ Smith said.

“We were expecting it to be a real step up from Carifta with the added countries. Mexico obviously came with a very dominant team, but our athletes were able to perform at a really high level.

“Outside of the medals, we were excited about personal-best times and several of our athletes were able to do that in multiple events.

“We actually finished fourth quite a few times and just outside of getting medals. I was pleased with the growth of the team as we had some young athletes with this their first international competition and some had just come off their first one at Carifta.

“Add to that some of our most experienced athletes at the championships and we were a well-rounded team.”

In 2023, Bermuda skipped CCCAN, instead choosing to send a team to the Bahamas National Swimming Championships.

“Last year we did not go because it fell later in the summer and it was in El Salvador, so we decided to go to Bahamas Nationals,’’ he said.

“Bahamas Nationals is an age-group competition, but it’s going to be at the level of just that country of Bahamas. At CCCAN the level of athletes in each age group was significant and it gave our athletes a good challenge.

“It’s difficult to compare to years gone by because of the different make-up of the team. Sometimes we have elite level athletes with us but this being an Olympic year they did not attend.

“Having relay teams compete is always something that helps you with scoring for the competition.”

Smith spoke highly of Logan Watson-Brown, one of the gold medal-winners, for the resilience she has shown on her return from injury.

“Logan is a big story for us because she was not available for two years,” the national coach said.

“She had a really bad shoulder injury that led to getting some surgery and lots of rehab, and this is her first year returning to international competition.

“You can see that she’s really starting to get strong again with her results at CCCAN and we’re looking forward to what she can do in the next four years.”