The 2021 National Winter Short Course Swimming Championships took place at Ponds Forge Leisure Centre in Sheffield recently.

Team Utmost Wealth Isle of Man Swimming were represented by 11 Manx athletes over the three-day event.

For several of the swimmers it was a first time at this level, for some it was a return to form and for some it was an opportunity to prove their worth in the eyes of the Birmingham Commonwealth Games selection panel.

The winter national championships is the highest level of domestic racing that Isle of Man Swimming Club members have faced since 2019, with national coach Lee Holland saying: ’The fact that as an island we are represented by 11 qualifiers at British level is amazing.’

The athletes that attended were: Harvey Lowe, Peter Allen (Stirling), Joel Watterson, Alex Bregazzi (Loughborough), Harry Robinson (Mt Kelly), Magnus Kelly (Mt Kelly), Finn Drysdale (RWS), Laura Kinley, Olivia Marshall, Emma Hodgson and Kiera Prentice.

Personal bests came thick and fast from many of the younger swimmers competing at nationals for their first time, with Prentice, Kelly, Lowe and Drysdale swimming very strongly in their favoured events and achieved consideration standards for the Guernsey Island Games.

Hodgson, Marshall and Robinson had strong swims, with Hodgson achieving the Commonwealth Games consideration standard in the 50m backstroke for the 18th time in the window.

Marshall delivered a fine swim and a season’s best in the 50m freestyle, again looking to bolster her CV ahead of Commonwealth selection.

Robinson took further drops off a number of lifetime bests and also achieved a further CG consideration standard in his favourite 50m backstroke.

Without doubt the three standout swimmers of the meet from a Manx perspective were the most senior ones.

Bregazzi saw a fine return to form during studying at Loughborough for his physics PHD, swimming on day one with a 400m freestyle 2.5-second island record and a 10th place finish.

Bregazzi also swam his second fastest lifetime best in the 100m freestyle and then returned to the Sunday session to swim the 200m freestyle where the heat saw him burst through the field to qualify for the final in sixth.

He then swam a tactically near-perfect swim to take his first ever national silver medal.

Loughborough University graduate Kinley has been in fine form after her tier one Commonwealth selection last month and has probably the most experience of any of the team.

Kinley swam within 0.04 seconds of her lifetime best in the 100m breaststroke, then on the Saturday in her favoured event - the 50m breaststroke - she delivered a lifetime best to qualify for the evening’s final.

That was a time that had stood since 2016, but she then went and repeated that feat by swimming an almost carbon copy to take the silver medal.

This was her first national senior medal and only the second Manx female to do so in the last 50 years.

Watterson has been rising through the ranks and taking big scalps along the way for a couple of years now. Unfortunately with Covid restrictions, he has not had much in the way of high-level competition since his emergence onto the scene in taking multiple Island Games golds in Gibraltar.

He swam three events - 50m butterfly and freestyle plus the 100m freestyle - and each time executed race plans to put himself into the British finals.

Once into the finals Watterson continued to prove his nerve, holding strong and going on to break all three Manx records, demonstrating why he was selected alongside Kinley as a tier one Commonwealth Games athlete.

Coach Holland was delighted with the showing and the growth of Manx talent at this level of competition, saying: ’I remember when I arrived in the island nine years ago and we had two swimmers at this level.

’It is absolutely fair to say that the numbers we are seeing now are down to the support of Mike Foy and our incredible sponsor Utmost Wealth International, the hard work of the amazing coaching staff and volunteers we have, the parental support structures and the belief, hard work and teamwork of these athletes.

’The last racing of this year takes place with our Christmas Cracker meet at the National Sports Centre. With athletes in form like this, we could see more significant swims to sign off a year some will be glad to see the back of!’

Elsewhere off-island, there were a number of meets across England with Manx swimmers competing in Manchester and Wirral and numerous personal bests were set and medals won.

The star of the Manchester show was 15-year-old Connor Mealin who broke the Isle of Man national junior record in the 50m breastroke and gained a consideration standard for the Guernsey Island Games.