Manx swimmer Charlotte Atkinson was one of the stars of the show at the 2017 British Universities and Colleges Short Course Swimming Championships.

The event saw almost 1,750 students, including Olympic-level athletes, travel to Ponds Forge in Sheffield to compete in the championships.

Fly swimmer Atkinson was one of a small team of specialist swimmers chosen to represent Loughborough University.

While it is still relatively early in the racing season, in her first event of the weekend Charlotte swam a lifetime best in the 100m event, taking silver in a time of 58.17 seconds and setting a new senior island record.

But it was in the 200m event that the Manx swimmer outshone the field. Having already set the standard in the morning heats, Atkinson made clear her intentions in the final by leading the race from the start.

Her gold-winning time of 2 minutes 5.51s obliterated her own gold medal-winning mark of 2m 8.09s from last year and set her apart from the field by more than three seconds.

Not only did her victory time set a new BUCS record, but it makes her the third fastest British female swimmer ever in the event.

The level of competition at this year’s championships was such that it was imperative that swimmers raised the bar which they did, surpassing expectations.

Loughborough took the overall team title ahead of Stirling then Edinburgh, making 2017 one of the university’s most successful BUCS Championships to date.

In December, Atkinson will be one of 10 swimmers chosen to be part of Team GB at the European Short Course Championships being held in Copenhagen.

This has proven timely for the 20-year-old World Championships swimmer from Braddan, as her new record time in the 200m fly currently places her fourth in the European short course rankings.

Beyond that, Charlotte is eagerly awaiting the announcement of the Isle of Man swim team for the 2018 Commonwealth Games in the Gold Coast, Australia.

’The Isle of Man swim team is due to be announced next month, so that will be really exciting,’ explained Charlotte.

’I’m hopeful of being selected as I have achieved the qualification time in the 50m, 100m and 200m fly many, many times. I really love representing the Isle of Man, so it would be great to be part of my home team.’