SHAYNE FAIRMAN, STAR Writer

With nine individual meet records established at last week's Walter Rodgers National Age-Group Swimming Championships, Alan Roy Marsh vice-president of swimming, remains quietly confident that those results will motivate team Jamaica's upcoming success at the Pan Am and CCAN Championships, later this year.

The annual age group champs attracted more than 400 budding swimmers and one overseas-based participant from 12 Clubs.

"This championship is the longest swimming event we have had in Jamaica," outlined Marsh, adding that the performances were very "impressive and encouraging".

Marsh believes the Wata/Wisynco sponsored event showed that intense training over the Christmas period resulted in success for national squad members, while the Alia Atkinson camp held in January fine-tuned their readiness.

"Those meets gave our swimmers a lot of conditioning and motivation to swim the fast times they did. We are very happy with the turn out and the times they swam," Marsh added.

"In the medium term, we are looking at the regional meets, with persons like Sidrell Willaims able to make the Pan Am Games and world championships this year.

There is tremendous opportunities for them (team Jamaica)," Marsh underlined.

There were a number of team meet records established at the five-day event also.

record shattering

The 400m medley relay quartet of boys aged 13 to 14: starter/back stroke Alex Mignott, Sean-Douglass Gooden, second backstroke, Jesse Marsh, third butterfly and Jonathan Lyn, freestyle, spectacularly erased a 1976 meet record mark, Friday night.

They shattered Flying Fish Ambassador Swim club's 1976 time of 4:39:60, replacing it with 4:31:73.

FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke.