BASINGSTOKE ice skating star, 13-year-old Danielle Harrison, has become the youngest member of the National Ice Skating Association’s performance squad by three years.

Her promotion to the performance squad gives her access to additional support and funding, as well as the chance of representing Team GB at international competitions.

The Everest Community Academy student is currently British number one in the junior ladies rankings and number four in the senior ladies rankings.

She joins 10-time British figure skating champion Jenna McCorkell, world junior championships skater Karly Robertson and Team GB 2012 Olympic ambition programme skater Katie Powell in the National Ice Skating Association’s (NISA) Senior Ladies Perfor-mance Squad.

Harrison, who started skating at the age of six, trains six days a week at the Basingstoke Arena.

She said: “I am really pleased to be invited onto NISA’s performance squad.

“I enjoy challenges and I have been working very hard to try and improve, so it was nice to achieve the target score I needed to make the performance squad.

“I’d like to thank my coaches, Debi and Simon Briggs, and also Gary Peed, Peter Baekgaard, Andrew Smith and Lisa Beaumont, who give me so much help and support.”

Hilary Selby, performance director at NISA, said: “Danielle is an extremely gifted and talented young skater and she fully deserves her place in the performance squad.

“We’re extremely proud of her development and we hope to see her go from strength to strength in the coming years.”