TWO Warrington girls had a year they will never forget in a highly successful rhythmic gymnastics team.

Great Sankey High School Year 10 students Lottie Cahill and Alex Marshall, both members of the Finesse Rythmic Gymnastics Club in Widnes where they are coached by former Great Sankey pupil Laura Hogg, joined up with three girls from Fylde Coast RGC in Lytham to form a winning combination.

The five split their training between both clubs and their dedication paid off in bucketloads.

They succeeded in a trial at Lilleshall Hall National Sports Centre to represent Great Britain in some major competitions across the world.

April saw them win two gold medals in the British Open, in the five balls and five ropes disciplines.

That led to them competing for GB in the 30th Portimao International in Portugal.

The experience was perfect preparation for contesting the 39th European Rhythmic Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan, a month later.

They were the first junior GB group to compete in that event for 13 years.

Back home again, they were England Team 1 in the Homes Nations in Cardiff, where they won the overall team gold as well as gold in the five ropes and silver in the five balls.

In June they were treble gold medal winners in the English Rhythmic Championships, in the five hoops and five balls disciplines and also all around.

That led to them making history as the first Great Britain team to qualify for the Rhythmic Junior World Championships, which took place in Cluj Napoca, Romania, in July.

Unfortunately the world championships were scheduled on the same weekend as the British Championships, so a team they had been beating all year went on to be crowned British champions.

At this point, after such a demanding period, Alex and Lucy Taylor elected to step down because they would find the relentless training regime too hard to keep up along with school work in Year 10 and 11.

Lottie decided to continue along with Evie Bayes and Tallulah Crabtree, but because Evie is a year older, they can no longer compete as juniors and have stepped up to senior level, after having been joined by two newcomers to the group.

They are taking this year to practice new routines with the intention of competing in international competitions next year, and they have the dream of again going to the Europeans and Worlds plus the ultimate goal of reaching the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.