A KINGSMEAD ice skater has become a national champion after winning gold at a team event last weekend.

Ella Forbes, 11, took to the ice alongside her Whizz Kid teammates at the British Synchronised Skating Championships in Nottingham last Saturday, January 15, scoring a personal best to win the competition.

The team of 15 skaters, aged 11 to 16, competed in the advanced novice B categoriy, skating a three minute, forty second routine to the tune of Kristin Chenoweth’s ‘Evil Like Me’ from the Disney film Descendants.

A huge score of 32.02 won them gold and the British championship title, beating competition from every corner of Britain and bettering their silver medal performance at the Winter Cup in Belgium in November.

Proud mum Lisa said: “We went down on the Saturday and spent the weekend there. This is the third time she has competed in the competition and they got 4th and then silver, and this year they moved up from juvenile to this novice category. Getting the gold was just amazing.

“When they hear they result they just had the biggest group hug, screaming and shouting. She just screamed ‘we’re British champions … I’m a British champion!’ “It’s rewarding. All the time, effort and money has been worth it for the experience she has had, and the great memories she will keep.

“We didn’t get back until late on Sunday, and she turned up at scool the next day with glitter still in her hair. Her teacher asked why she had it and her friend just screamed ‘she’s a British champion!’”

Synchronised skating is the fastest growing figure skating discipline, and is billed to become an event at the Winter Olympics as early as 2022.

The Whizz Kids, who train before and after school at Silverblades Ice Rink in Altrincham, head to Scotland and Hungary in the coming months.

They also featured on CBBC show Ice Stars back in November, and were filmed once more practicing before the British Championships event in Nottingham.