The 2017 Utmost Wealth Isle of Man Swimming Championships got underway at the National Sports Centre pool over the weekend.

The competition sees all four regional clubs go up against one another with sights set on silverware and the national title.

This year’s event coincides with the close of the island’s Commonwealth Games qualifying window.

The female events saw Emma Hodgson and Olivia Marshall renew their continuing rivalry with battles in the 50m fly, 100m freestyle and 50m freestyle.

Marshall clinched the three titles, including the 50m fly in a new junior island record, bettering the mark which she took from Charlotte Atkinson in this year’s NatWest Island Games in Gotland.

Hodgson did not leave empty-handed though, with a number of personal best times and a win in the 200m backstroke event.

Alex Bregazzi returned home from university in Loughborough and won the 400m freestyle in a new championship record of 3min 56.60sec but agonisingly fell short of the qualifying standard set after the Glasgow Commonwealth Games in what proved to be his last chance to compete in Australia.

The sprint 50m butterfly event saw Brody Hewison and Joel Watterson go head-to-head once again, with both men aiming for a CG standard.

The pair have been trading wins all season with no margin smaller than the single one-hundredth of a second that gave Watterson the win from Hewison, with Euan Macmurchie in a huge lifetime best to take the bronze medal.

The 100m butterfly saw Hewison take the title in a new personal best time from Peter Allen with Macmurchie a close third.

Steph Brew, who has already achieved the Commonwealth consideration standard, had a solid first weekend ahead of her main events in the second weekend, with the breaststroke specialist claiming gold by a distance in the 200m breaststroke event and also the 200m individual medley.

Guy Davies, like Brew, was hoping to bolster his chances of selection for the Gold Coast and certainly did not disappoint, taking both the 100m and 50m breaststroke crowns from Hewison and Macmurchie in second and third respectively.

Leonardo de Fort, Panos Angelakis and Matthew Buxton continue to show that the future is bright in Isle of Man swimming with the trio sharing titles across the 11-year-old age group in their favoured events.

Matthew claimed the 100m fly, with Panos taking wins in the 100m individual medley and 50m breastroke, while Leonardo clinched gold in the 50m fly and 100m breastroke.

Female age group swimming was given a considerable boost with 11-year-old Leah Mellor from Douglas taking a brace of titles in the 50m freestyle and 50m fly events.

Also, 13-year-old Southern swimmer Blae Richardson smashed personal bests to take her age group titles in 50m and 100m freestyle and in the process she got onto her first senior podium taking bronze overall in both events to add to age group titles in 50m and 100m fly events.

The championships also saw a new team attending as 9Beats Masters swimmers (over 18s) saw a number of ex-island athletes back in the pool as well as very first-time competitors.

The women’s 4x50m freestyle team even sneaked onto the podium to take bronze behind Southern A and Douglas A teams.

l Action at the Utmost Wealth Isle of Man Swimming Championships continues with the distance events tomorrow (Wednesday) and yet more this coming weekend at the NSC.

More reports next week.Lee Holland