A LIDEN schoolgirl has rolled back into Swindon as a national champion at the age of just nine.

Willow Johnson was crowned the best artistic roller skater in the country for her age group after the competition in Hampshire.

In The Federation of Artistic Roller Skating’s Tots (under-nines) Solo Dance Championship, Willow beat 20 others and gained the score of an average teenager to take gold.

Mum Tracey Johnson, 50, a full-time carer of Windermere, in Liden, said the achievement was still sinking in for her little girl.

“She’s not a loud person. She was very reserved on the way home,” she said.

“I said to her ‘do you realise you’re the best in Great Britain in your age group?'

“I don’t think she’s really soaked it up yet, even now. She’s not one to brag. She doesn’t discuss it unless anyone asks her.”

Artistic roller skating is very similar to figure skating, but with wheels instead of ice.

Willow performed the same compulsory dance routines as everyone else and was graded best overall for the performances.

The Wanborough Primary School pupil will now go to Hettange, in France, to represent Great Britain in an international contest, but has her sights set higher.

“She wants to go to the worlds (world championships),” said Tracey.

“Even at school, when she’s asked to draw a picture everything has to be 150 per cent. If it’s not, she’s not happy."

“People are stopping me in the street. I don’t even know them, but they are saying nice things on Facebook about my daughter too.”

Willow's obsession with skating actually began when she went swimming.

Tracey said her daughter would come out of her lessons at Dorcan Recreation Complex and be captivated by the music used in the roller skating classes there.

She switched from swimming to skating and, four years on, she has already been scouted by one of the country’s top club, Stalham Artistic Roller Skating Club, based in Great Yarmouth, which she visits once a month and she practises regularly at Cirencester Deer Park School.

“When I look at my other friends with children her age, she seems a lot more mature than the others,” said Tracey.

“She has always been the baby of that group. The other skaters are older. She has grown up fast.”

Willow has a twin brother, Oliver, and three older siblings in Kerry, 30, David, 28, and Tyran, 27.

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