A TEENAGER hopes her latest glittering display is the next step in a journey that will end at the World Championships.

Halah Thomas, from Drayton, won silver in the Junior Ladies category at the 2020 Oxford Open to add to a host of impressive performances at national and international level.

Alongside back-to-back appearances at the British Championships, the 16-year-old has already represented Great Britain in countries such as Slovenia, Poland and Croatia.

Thomas is hoping to take her promising career to the next level, but she knows combining up to six training sessions every week at Oxford Ice Rink with studying for her A-Levels represents a tough ask.

“It’s not always easy juggling everything and time management is key,” she admitted.

“It’s funny to think that last year I was doing my GCSEs whilst trying to qualify for the British Championships, but I love being faced with a challenge.

“I always strive to put 110 per cent effort into everything I do, not just in my skating but in my academics and my training sessions too.”

The youngster competed in her first national competition aged just six after sailing through her skate school exams.

Thomas was fourth at Advanced Novice level at the 2018 British Figure Skating Championships, before finishing 11th at Junior Ladies Level at the 2019 event.

The ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating later this year is her next aim, with the World Championships and Winter Olympics longer-term goals.

But Thomas, who trains at Snap Fitness Didcot, knows there are plenty of hurdles along the way.

She said: “Figure skating is a tough sport and takes a huge amount of resilience.

“Sometimes it can take years to master a jump and even then, you might have a bad day and it just doesn’t happen.”