Bolton-taught roller skaters achieve prestigious accolade

Jessica Heyes, 14, from Bury, and Thomas Ashworth, 16, from Chorley, recently achieved International Bronze at the European Artistic Roller Skating Championships.

Artistic roller skating is a sport similar to ice figure skating but on roller skates.

They are taught and practice at Bolton Artistic Roller Skating Club in Bromley Cross.

Jessica and Thomas performing at the championships (Image: Andrew Heyes)

Jessica and Thomas, who are current Junior Couples British champions, travelled to Bergen op Zoom in the Netherlands to represent Great Britain at the Cup of Europe international competition.

The event included 181 skaters from nine countries.

Jessica said: “I’m feeling really happy about it, we were going there and just hoping to do our best, but as we’ve come anyway with a bronze it’s really exciting.

“It was really good, we’ve been skating together for about three years now, and it was really good to be able to achieve that.

The two have been skating together for around three years (Image: Andrew Heyes)

“The only titles that I’ve won previously are British championships and I’m really proud of myself for that, but to get to these championships is really different for me.”

She continued: “Skating isn’t really very popular and really read about it a lot, so I’m really happy to be able to speak about the sport that I’m doing.

“My coach Nina Asquith, she’s amazing and I couldn’t ask for a better coach. Just the people at skating are all so kind, we all support each other, we all help each other out and it’s just a great environment.”

Her mother, Debbie Heyes, said: “I still can’t believe it really, I’m proud of her and proud of them both actually.

This was their first international performance as a couple (Image: Andrew Heyes)

“Jessica herself has been skating for about seven to eight years.”

Debbie recalls taking Jessica skating as a child to discover that she was a natural.

She continued: “Jessica has been at Bolton Artistic Roller Skating Club since 2015, prior to that she was at another skating club.”

Thomas' mother, Ann Ashworth, spoke of her pride for her son, saying:

"We were just so pleased for him, it was actually Thomas' first international competition.

"We're just over the moon for him, it's a massive achievement. He's really pleased with it, he's been telling everybody.

"It's absolutely amazing how well they've done due to the time they've been skating together, as the people they were against had been skating together for much longer."

This was Jessica and Thomas’ first international competition as a couple, with them having previously competed and won at British level together before.