AN EAST Durham training firm is supporting a talented young gymnast in her bid to become world tumbling champion.

Sophie Allen, 13, of Peterlee, is a member of the Deerness Gymnastics Academy in Durham and has competed in tumbling championships across the globe.

In 2012 Sophie was crowned British champion in her age group – an accolade which enabled her to train with some of the country’s top athletes.

The success story didn’t end there, with Sophie scooping a silver medal for Great Britain in the 2014 Loule Cup, an international tumbling competition held in Portugal. Last year she brought home a silver medal at the British Championships, was ranked Britain’s number two seed and competed in the recent 2015 Tumbling World Championships in Denmark.

Her bid to be crowned world champion is now being assisted by the Peterlee-based KF Training, which has donated £1,000 from its community development fund to help finance her travel and training expenses.

She is the first beneficiary of the fund, which was launched by the Peterlee-based company to support worthy local causes.

Sophie said: “I’m so grateful for the funding from KF Training. I spend a lot of time travelling all over the country and abroad for competitions and it can become quite expensive. Gymnastics has been my passion for many years and tumbling is fantastic way of keeping fit.”

KF Training managing director Kelly Lee said: “Sophie has already achieved so much at such a young age and is clearly a talented gymnast – definitely one for the future. We are happy to support her and we’ll certainly be monitoring her progress in the coming months and years.