Cumbrian runner Charlotte Arter says she’s ready to rise to the challenge when she takes to the track at the British Indoor Championships this weekend.

The 24-year-old, from South Skiprigg, near Dalston, is bound for the English Institute of Sport arena in Sheffield on Sunday afternoon, where she is due to race over 3,000 metres.

Arter goes into the meeting in good form, having kept up her strong start to 2016 with a victory in the Welsh 3k Championships this month. And she said that racing on the big stage may just bring out the best in her.

“I’m looking forward to this – it’ll be a quick race, and all the best in the country will be running. So it’ll be a good one. I always try and rise to the occasion,” she said.

“The bigger the stage, I always feel I can rise to it. In Wales it was more a time trial, me and the clock, and I never perform as well as when it’s a race. Everyone says when it’s a good race, you’ll run a quick time, so hopefully the British Championships will be a good quick race.

“Some people don’t – some people like to chase times – but I’m very much a racer. There’ll be a few top athletes racing there so it’ll be interesting to race against them.”

Arter, who also competes in cross-country events, will finish running indoors in May, with a lull in competitive action anticipated before the outdoor season kicks off in May.

And she believes that her upturn in form has coincided with her return from the USA, where she had been studying at the University of New Mexico until last summer - and is hopeful that her own purple patch can continue for some time, with the European Championships coming up in July.

“I feel like I’ve nearly been there for the last few years, but I think it’s just clicked this year with coming back to Cardiff and training with James (Thie, coach). It only takes a couple of things just for it to all fall into place, and it all comes together, and I feel that’s what’s happened this year,” she said.

“I’m trying to get personal bests across the board, which I’m confident I can run this year. I don’t really know what my best distance is going to be. I have an idea of what the qualifying standards are for Europeans, but I don’t know what event, so I’ll see how the races pan out and see what I can run. Cross-country surprised me with the form I was in, so hopefully track will do the same.”

Fellow Cumbrian Tom Farrell is also in action at the Indoor British Championships tomorrow evening, racing over 3,000 metres in the final qualifying competition for the World Indoor Championships.