The 2008 Scotiabank-sponsored Barbados Amateur Swimming Long Course Nationals got off to a flying start at the Aquatic Centre, Wildey, St Michael, on Wednesday with outstanding performances.

In the Boys' Eight-and-under 50-metres fly and the 100 metres, seven-year-old Damon St Prix of the Alpha Swimming Club was in superlative form.

He set a new record of 36.52 seconds in the 50-metres fly to eclipse the previous one of 37.46 seconds set by Bradley Ally in 1995.

The following day he returned to set a time of one minute, 15.01 seconds in the 100-metres freestyle to erase the one minute, 15.94 seconds set in 1996 by Kerry Kirton.

In the Girls Under-13, 400-metres event, Lani Cabrera of the Stingrays Club easily erased the 5:30.33 seconds set by Danielle Timothy in 1998, with a new record of 5 minutes, 27.35 seconds.

In the Girls' 13-14 age group 100-metres fly event, Cabrera narrowly missed lowering the 1998 time of one minute, 01.87 seconds record of Rhea Henry, when she posted one minute, 02.30 seconds in her heat.

The highly promising Chelsea Gellineau of the Stingrays Club returned a time of 35.83 seconds to take the Girls' age 13-14, 50-metres backstroke. Diandre Small who qualified for CARIFTA last year, set a time
of 35.56 seconds in the
50-metres backstroke in the age 11-12 category.

Speaking to SUNSPORT after the end of Day 2 of the trials, president of the association, Sonia O'Neal, said that she was happy so far with the meet.

O'Neal said the long course nationals, now into its 18th year, was a very important event to give senior swimmers the opportunity to achieve qualifying times for regional and other competitions.

"It is well placed just before the CARIFTA swimming championships and a lot of our senior swimmers are vying for qualifying times for those championships to be
held in Aruba from
March 26 to 30, and
the Caribbean Islands Swimming Championships to be held sometime
in June.

"From the performances so far I can see we are going to have a very competitive CARIFTA swimming team. The swimmers are all hyped up. So far a number of the competitors, especially the juniors, have been very impressive during the two days and by the end on Sunday [tomorrow] I am sure we will see a number of new records broken," she said.

Swimmers from St Lucia, Grenada and the United States Virgin Islands are also in Barbados.