Swimmer Sam Williamson cast his nerves aside to break a Bermuda record at the World Short Course Championships on Tuesday.

Williamson lowered his own mark in the 200 metres individual medley to 2min 1.07sec despite feeling the burn on the final freestyle leg, with the time leaving him 39th overall.

“I knew I was on form coming into it but the swim just confirmed it,” Williamson said.

“Coming away to a different place and a different environment, you can never know what is going to happen, but this has given me a good mental boost.

“I was really happy and I felt good out there today. I took the first 100 out really strong and it was the fastest I’ve ever been to the 100. The breaststroke also started to feel good and I started to feel pretty tired in the freestyle, I guess that’s normal after going out hard.”

Nerves have always been a problem for Williamson but, judged on this swim, it seems as if he has now overcome those demons.

“I was still a bit nervous but I channelled them in the right direction today,” he said.

“The difference is I was happy to be there, whereas last year at the Pan Am Games I was so nervous I almost didn’t want to be there to do badly on the big stage in front of everyone.

“I felt much more like myself and I had some front-end speed that I didn’t even know that I had. I’ve learnt you need to have nerves to be able to perform.”

Williamson is not done at these World Championships yet, with the 400 individual medley to come on Saturday, and he will be resting up before he chases another personal best.

“Between now and then I’ll go for swims every day and watch EJ [Elijah Daley],” Williamson said.

“Apart from the swimming, I’ll be relaxing in the hotel, keeping it chilled and staying off my feet as much as possible. I won’t be overthinking things but I’ll now be looking forward to it and staying positive.

“I’m really excited to see what I can do on Saturday. A PB would be great but it’s not easy to do that every time. A PB would mean another national record and two national records are better than one.”