A mum burst into tears after receiving an email about her daughter.
Nicky Chambers, from Birkenhead, was at Blackpool Pleasure Beach when she got the news that her 12-year-old daughter, Grace Dunne, has been chosen to represent Great Britain in gymnastics.
Grace is going to represent the country in Portugal in July after only competing at an elite level for under a year. The athlete was picked after a training camp in March and will be joined by others from the UK in various different age groups.
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Mum Nicky, 39, told the ECHO: “It’s amazing to see how far she has come. I am so proud of her and how hard she works and to see how far she’s come after only starting to compete at an elite level for tumbling last year. She makes me unbelievably proud every single day.
“When she first started, Grace would forget what to do or run off but now she believes in herself. It’s such a hard sport being out there on your own, if something goes wrong you have to change it in a split second.
“She was like a whirlwind when she was younger. She needed to burn some energy off and have some fun and then it lead to her getting invited to the squad. To be able to say that she has been selected to represent a country is absolutely massive."
Grace started the sport when she was just two years old and joined the GB squad when she was seven. Now she trains five days a week for several hours a day at Wirral Gym Club.
She told the ECHO: “I’m really excited about it and I’m really excited to go to Portugal for the swimming pool. I have a love-hate relationship with the sport because sometimes it's really exciting but most of the time it’s really fun. It’s been good to see myself progress over the years."
Grace has been sponsored for the trip by KR Couries and Transport LTD - a Birkenhead-based company. Mum-of-one Nicky hopes to go with Grace to Portugal in two months' time.
Last year Grace was amongst a group of young sports people from the Wirral who were awarded bursaries by a local organisation set up to support them. The Mayor of Wirral, Councillor Jeff Green presented the bursary awards to several local junior sports men and women at an event held in Wallasey Town Hall.
The awards hoped to fund their development and competitive opportunities at a county, national and European levels - and Grace has achieved exactly that.
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