From school desk to British ski champion… Sheffield’s hottest ski star Hannah Handford-Styring is flying high — after winning the British ladies’ ski championship just a day before her 13th birthday.

The Notre Dame High schoolgirl won the British Moguls Ski Championship at Castleford’s SNO! zone.

She has been skiing for eight years, topping up her training with regular trips to Tigne in the French Alps and weekly ski sessions at Sheffield’s ski village.

Hannah is also sponsored by Castleford’s SNO! zone, who give her free access to their slopes allowing her to train on real snow before competitions.

And as if flying down the slopes at rocket speed weren’t scary enough, Hannah says she prefers mogul skiing, which involves snow trails with bumps requiring sharp twists and jumps.

She says it’s “more exciting” than regular skiing.

But to excel at mogul skiing, Hannah must make sure she is not only fit, but strong and incredibly agile.

“I need to build up my upper strength,” she said.

Hannah also attends weekly trampolining sessions and has just started training at EIS Sheffield — the training hub of Sheffield’s heptathlon gold medallist Jessica Ennis — to increase her fitness, body strength and agility.

Her dad Peter Handford-Styring is a coach for the England Moguls Ski Team and also trains his daughter.

He said: “The reason Hannah got into skiing was that she won an athletic competition at five years old but she couldn’t compete because she was too young so we went skiing instead.

“I used to ski when I was a student and Hannah found a picture of me when she was young and said she wanted to do it.”

The 13-year-old, from Millhouses, is well-equipped for her skiing career. “I have about six or seven pairs of skis,” she says.

Hannah’s next goal is to compete in the international competitions in Europe in 2010, to secure a place on the England Moguls Development Team.

She said of her latest victory: “It was amazing to go into a final feeling so confident. Being the leader in qualification meant I got to ski last so I could see what other competitors had done. I knew I had to be aggressive but at the same time not push too hard so I didn’t fall.”

Hannah wants to become a vet so has to juggle he skiing with her studies.

Peter said:”The problem is balancing education and sport but fortunately many veterinary schools have ski schools nearby — Jessica Ennis managed to combine her degree with her athletics.”

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