CHIPPENHAM paracycling starlet Lauren Booth enjoyed a British Cycling National Track Championships debut that she will never forget, coming back from Manchester as a senior national champion.

The 13-year-old, who is a student at Abbeyfield School, rubbed shoulders with some of the country’s top cyclists at the National Cycling Centre last week.

She rose to the top of the pile in the C1-5 category mixed 500m para time trial, taking the gold medal ahead of Jonathan Gildea and Jaco van Gass while setting a new record of 40.654 seconds.

Refusing to settle for just the one show-stopping performance on her sensational first appearance at the nationals, the youngster, who trains under Neil Smith at Newport Young Velo cycling club, also set a new national record of 14.400 seconds as she finished second in the flying 200m time trial.

Booth also got the chance to swap pleasantries with double-Olympic medallist Laura Trott and says that she never expected to make such a huge impact in Manchester.

“It was amazing,” said the new national champion, who developed bacterial meningitis as a baby and whose parents were told by doctors that she may never walk.

“It was really tough and I thought that I’d only come third,” she said.

“People were coming up to me saying ‘well done’ and patting me on the back, and that was really good.”

Mum Lisajayne said: “It was just amazing to see her do so well. It was her first time at the senior nationals and I don’t think she was expecting to go there and do so well.

“She was up against current Paralympic cyclists and people potentially going to the next Paralympics too.

“Some of the best paracyclists in the country were competing there too – Dame Sarah Storey and Jody Cundy were both there.

“You just wonder when she’s going to stop doing so well.”

Youngster Pete Kibble helped Wales notch up a fourth-placed finish at last weekend’s British Cycling Inter-Regional Road Championships.

The 16-year-old, who lives in New Zealand, near Calne, was competing in his final event as a youth cyclist at the Redbridge Cycling Centre in London and competed in a host of events, with North West England winning.