A whirlwind 12 months for Barnet-raised sprinter Charlotte Wingfield will be complete when the 21-year-old takes to the athletics track at the Brazil Olympics next month.

The Cardiff Met student has only been running for her adopted country since 2015, having raced for Great Britain in previous years, but has already set the 60, 100 and 200 metre records for the Mediterranean nation.

And with the Maltese championship under her belt earlier this year, she will now travel to South America next week to compete in her debut Olympic Games, representing Malta in the women's 100m.

A former student at Queen Elizabeth's High School in Barnet, Wingfield has just graduated from university in Wales with a first – but now an even tougher challenge awaits.

She qualifies for Maltese nationality through her father, who is from the tiny island nation which has a population of just 450,000 and has never harboured an Olympic medal-winning athlete.

Since deciding to race under the Malta flag, Wingfield has enjoyed a euphoric rise in international events.

She finished top of the field in the 100m in last year's Small States of Europe championships, as well as racing in the European Championships in Amsterdam earlier this month.

Wingfield told the Barnet Times: "It hasn't really sunk in. I thought it would when it was officially announced – I think it won't hit until I'm actually in Rio now.

"I used to say I wanted to be in the Olympics, when other people were saying what they wanted to be when we were little, and it shows dreams can come true.

"Running for Malta has opened up a lot of opportunities for me. I had the idea to run for them a couple of years ago.

"After the Commonwealth Games in Glsagow, I spoke to my coach and he backed me to go for it.

"It turns out my birth was registered in Malta so I got a passport, and that was it."

But having enjoyed such a rise to prominence since her change of nationality, joy turned to despair in February when Wingfield tore her hamstring.

Five months on and everything is back on track. But at the time, it didn't look so straight forward.

She said: "At that point I thought I might not be going. I tried to put a brave face on. It was my first ever major injury, and I felt like I'd been shot. 

"But I managed to get to the World Indoor Championships, and I wasn't far off my personal best. I got within 0.01 seconds and so I knew I'd be going, probably, after that.

"I couldn't tell anyone until it was officially announced, and after I want the Maltese championships, it was very likely. It was just brilliant to be able to tell people in the end.

"I've been travelling back and forth a lot so I know I'm not quite where I could be, but hopefully when I get to Rio I can get it together and show what I can do."