Jamaica's Alia Atkinson, silver medal (left), and Julia Smit of the United States, gold medal, stand on the podium during the medal ceremony for the swimming women's 200m individual swimming medley at the Pan American Games.

GUADALAJARA, Mexico:

She has long been billed as the next star of Jamaican swimming and Alia Atkinson finally delivered on the big stage at the XVI Pan American Games last night with a silver medal and a massive new national record of 2:14.75 in the women's 200 metres individual medley.

In taking Jamaica's first medal at the games and the first in the pool since 1999, the 22-year-old darling of Jamaican swimming shrugged off a heart-breaking near miss on Monday night and with a twinkle in her eyes this time she called it 'redemption'.

Some 40 minutes after Atkinson's silver, Jamaica bagged a second medal when Charles Pyne, a losing men's singles semi-finalist in badminton, was awarded a bronze.

The outstanding performance of the night, however, belonged to Atkinson.

"From this morning I realised I needed to do something big tonight to make up for yesterday," Atkinson, now competing at her third Pan American Games, said.

She added: "I was kind of tired going into this (the race) and I was very surprised, but I told myself 'make sure on the last part, wherever you are, just keep going and it worked."

Monday's fourth-place finish had taught her a harsh lesson and she changed her game plan for last night's race.

"I learned from the 100m butterfly and the 100 metres breaststroke. The 100 'fly' I went out too slow and in the breaststroke I went out too fast. This time I just focused on my race and tried not to go out too fast, but to just stay on pace," she added.

Atkinson's time clipped all of 2.56 seconds off her previous best of 2:17.31 set at the Central American and Caribbean Games in Puerto Rico last year.

The gold went to American Julia Smit in 2:13.73, while Brazil's Joanna Maranhoa won bronze in 2:15.08.