Swimmer Burch 'proud' of new national record (update)

Roy Allan Burch broke the men's 100m freestyle Bermuda national record twice on his way to a silver medal at the 40th International Nico Sapio Trophy in Genoa, Italy this weekend.

Burch, a two-time Olympian, set a new record in the preliminaries, clocking 49:94 seconds. He then went even better in the final, storming to second place in 49:29.

It beats Bermuda's previous best men’s 100m freestyle time, also set by Burch, of 50:66 set during the World Championships in Barcelona earlier this year.

In Italy, Italian Lorenzo Benatti won the 100m freestyle gold medal in a time of 49.04. 

Burch told the Bermuda Sun: "I was a little surprised with the swim because we are in very heavy training — this time was a goal of mine for later in the season.

"But the swim has given me a lot of confidence and reassured me that my training is going well."

He added: "I take a lot of pride in my national records and plan to put them in a difficult place for the swimmers behind me.

"It was a positive step in the right direction and I was able to step up and race the field. I have lots more work to do but I am going to continue to work harder and harder.

"I'm doing everything I can to have a really successful commonwealth and CAC games."

Burch swam out of lane six for finals and was able to keep track of the whole field.

"I had a good idea of where I was in the race. I could already see that I was above the two guys to my outside and the guy directly on my inside. I got to the last lap and gritted my teeth and told myself repeatedly to put my head down and get to the wall.

"I felt like I had the win but was just touched out by Lorenzo Benatti of Italy. This was a huge racing breakthrough for me. Many times I over think when I race but this race allowed me to get back to my pure racing instincts and just go for it."