Skater Arabella Sear-Watkins beat injury to grace the ice at the British Figure Skating Championships and make history by following in her mother’s tracks.

The 13-year-old dislocated her ankle just a month before the contest while she was practising, but still managed to pull on her skates and impress the judges so much she took home the British Junior Novice Figure Skating Champion title after a strong competition in Sheffield.

And she earned an impressive sixth place in the international Denkova-Staviski Cup in Bulgaria the week before.

Arabella, of Stratton, told the Adver she was able to overcome the injury with rest and treatment from an osteopath. But she hadn’t expected to win the British title because of the strength of the competition.

“When I won I was very happy. I felt quite shocked to begin with because there were quite a few girls I was competing against who were quite good and they did a few harder elements than I did,” she said. “But I practised a lot up to it so I felt fine, I felt prepared. But there was a jump that I decided against doing and I feel like I made the best decision.”

Going up against 13 other figure skaters, she had to work hard and stay focussed. But it paid off as she scored a high 88.33. She made history because her mum Tamsin, also a figure skater, took her first title two decades ago. It makes them the first mother and daughter to win British championships. Tamsin, 42, who trains Arabella, said: “It was quite emotional really to see her enjoy the sport as I have and I try to get her to enjoy the process and the sport because it is hard. When we do go abroad for the competitions, I make sure we explore the cities to enjoy the culture. It’s something fun for us both to do together.”

Tamsin started out on the ice aged eight - as did Arabella - and became a British senior champion at 20. She now coaches young figure skaters at Oxford and two years ago helped another youngster win the same title as her daughter.

She said: “It was quite funny because Arabella was at the event when my other skater won and was holding the trophy and she was looking at it, dreaming that one day she would win it. We never imagined two years later she would actually win it.

Now Arabella has her eye on the next prize. “My next goal is to get to on the British Junior Squad and maybe if I’m lucky I could get a junior Grand Prix,” she said. “That would make me feel very proud and thrilled to get the chance to skate against the best skaters of my age in the world.”

The Grand Prix, run by the International Skating Union, is a series of competitions.