The Isle of Man’s swimmers got off to a record-breaking start at the 2026 Commonwealth Games on Friday morning.

In doing so, it ensured that several island swimmers will feature in the finals session later this evening.

No fewer than three Manx records tumbled in the pool at the Tollcross international Swimming Centre as the competition got underway in earnest in Glasgow.

The first standard to fall arrived early on in the men’s 50m backstroke when Harry Robinson’s time of 26.16 bettered the previous best for the distance, an effort which earned him a reserve spot for the evening session.

It was then the turn of the Isle of Man relay teams to shine, with both men’s and women’s quartets shattering the previous records to continue their flying start to the Games.

In the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay, the team of Ella Justice, Kiera Prentice, Lauren Dennett and Libby Curphey clocked a time of four minutes and 1.51 seconds to obliterate the previous record by a huge nine seconds.

That time was also enough to make them reserves for the evening session.

And the men’s 4x100m freestyle team quickly followed suit as the foursome of Peter Allen, Magnus Kelly, Harry Robinson and Joel Watterson recorded a time of three minutes 24.69 seconds to break the existing island record by two seconds.

In doing so, it confirmed their place in this evening’s final.

PERSONAL BESTS

On top of the records, there was also a scutch of personal bests recorded in the pool by Manx swimmers.

Kiera Prentice clocked a new PB when finishing second in her women’s 400m freestyle heat in 4m 32.94s, while Charlie Foster lopped two-tenths of a second off his men’s 50m backstroke lifetime best when finished third in his heat in 28.22.

Another PB followed for debutant Zack Bellhouse when clocking a time of 1m 9.31s seconds his men’s 100m breaststroke heats, finishing sixth in his heat.

Fellow Games newcomer Alex Turnbull was in action in the same discipline and also ended sixth in the following heat in 1m 6.20s.

Elsewhere in the pool, Curphey competed in the women’s 200m backstroke heat in a time of in 2m 26.54s, while Dennett clocked 4m 32.96s when finishing eighth in her women’s 400m freestyle heat.