Schoolgirl Alicia Gornall really gets her skates on to make sure she gets an early start two mornings a week.
Every Tuesday and Thursday she rises at around 5.30am and is whisked from her Spalding home by dad Neil to Peterborough’s Planet Ice to begin an hour’s lesson, changes back into her uniform and returns for lessons at the Sir John Gleed School, Spalding.
And her efforts are already paying remarkable dividends.
In June Alicia (14) entered her first figure skating competition at Basingstoke and won at the first attempt.
Last week she entered another in Chelmsford and beat competitors in her age group from all over the country to triumph again.
Now she’s waiting to see if she is selected to take part in another event in Oxford before Christmas before reverting to training only and the chance to move up to higher grade next year.
Window cleaner Neil could not have imagined his daughter would show so much star quality when he took her skating for the first time in Peterborough when she was around seven years old.
He praised Planet Ice coach Sarah Massey-Pennock who devises routines for Alicia once suitable music has been selected.
While she has to concentrate on school studies the future could hold the chance to become a professional coach herself one day – and even take part in the Winter Olympics if her competitive successes continue.