TEENAGE ice skater Jessica Gill is enjoying a great summer, qualifying for her first British Championships and being selected for the National Ice Skating Association (NISA) Regional Development Programme.

The NISA programme is for the top skaters in the country, with a view to producing future Olympic champions.

The 13-year-old from Rooksdown is going to her first development camp at Lincoln University next month.

Qualification for the development squad changed dramatically last year and is now a lot harder.

NISA used to use test passes and age, but now skaters need to achieve set competitive scores, both technical and overall, with a clean skate including set elements.

Gill achieved this at the Skate Southern Competition at Lee Valley Ice Centre in March and her place on the squad was confirmed in May.

A month later, the Basingstoke Ice Skating Club skater made it to the British Championships, which will be held in Sheffield in December, where she will compete in the Basic Novice B class. This was after she achieved a technical score of 14.6 to qualify.

The teenager’s next big competition is also in Sheffield, which will be ideal preparation ahead of the national championships.

It will not be her first time competing in Yorkshire as she was part of Basingstoke synchronised skating team Snowstorm that took part in the British Championships in 2009.

Gill only took up the sport the year before and she won her first solo competition in 2010 at Bracknell, when she was still only eight.

She currently trains six days a week, five times with Michael Jaye and also with Basingstoke Ice Skating Club.