A PUPIL from Ysgol Dyffryn Taf with hopes of making Team GB for a future Olympics, is about to intensify her training as a canoe slalom athlete, after completing her A Levels.

You may know it as kayaking or canoeing, but what Gabrielle Ridge loves to do is to race in time-trial events, down white water rapids (whilst negotiating a series of gates!) in the sport of whitewater slalom racing.

Gabi is delighted to be moving onto her summer training program in respect of her beloved specialised sport canoe slalom, as she once again departs Wales to race and train across Europe in these coming weeks.

This summer commences with racing for Wales in Bratislava, and Ivrea (the Young Danubia Cup), with further slalom training also in Prague, Augsburg and Bourg St. Maurice.

She is presently ranked 9th/1,000+ in the UK rankings, with 2014 seeing her achieve her goal of winning a UK Premier race, an extremely rare achievement for a junior kayak lady.

In addition, in 2014 she became (and still is) the highest ranking Welsh lady ‘paddler’ (across all ages - even though she was only 17) as well as becoming reserve GB junior champion in slalom’s ‘ladies kayak’ category.

Gabi has been successful in attaining a Sports Wales Award again in 2015 in recognition of her training commitment and achievements to date. She was one of six young athletes from West Wales supported by the Keith Cobain Memorial Awards at the biannual Sports-Aid dinner at the Ivy Bush in Carmarthen.

Gabi trains at least twice mid-week in Llandysul, and a weekend can take her anywhere in the country both to race and train, Grandtully in Scotland, Bala in North Wales, and Nottingham are amongst the locations.

However, more recently, the Olympic course in Hertfordshire has become a more frequent training location as Gabrielle has been invited to train as part of the GB home nations/podium potential group - one of only two Welsh lady paddlers to be invited to date.

She was awarded the Pembrokeshire sports award - ladies under 16 in 2013 and has since added a string of race titles to this coveted award.

Gabi plans to relocate to Nottingham this autumn to further her training at the national white water centre and to study bio-chemistry, you may have noticed that the training location is No.1 priority here!

Gabi is presently the only premiership ranked lady paddler resident in Dyfed, (her sister Alexandra was also a premiership ranked paddler and member of the Welsh Performance Squad, until taking a break from the sport at the end of last season to concentrate on her studies).

Alexandra has been key to Gabrielle’s development in the sport as her role model and training partner as it was Alexandra and a close friend that introduced her to the sport.

She has been very fortunate to have had the support of her school Dyffryn Taf in Whitland (where she was deputy head girl), and headmaster Mr. Robert Newsome OBE, which has enabled her to pursue her sport alongside her A Level studies.

Gabi was thrilled recently at the school prize-giving ceremony to be presented with the Peter Wills Memorial Shield at the annual prize-giving in recognition of many sporting attainments.

Gabi’s commitment to the sport is very evident, but what is more remarkable is that she has attained all of this alongside her family’s own personal turmoil of her dad David fight against cancer and subsequent treatments.

She has been extremely aware of placing extra demands on the family finances as David’s return to full health is still ongoing, so much so that she has set about raising funds/sponsorship from local businesses in a bid to finance her ongoing training.

If anyone out there is able to promote her sporting achievements in any way, she and her family would be very grateful.

Gabi’s next aim is to be included in the 2016 GB team as an under 23, in her words ‘to get myself firmly on the ‘GB map, to compete for GB, as well as continue to race for Wales.’

The ultimate prize would be to compete in the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2020 or beyond.

All of the training and racing in-between are stepping stones in a bid to reach this goal.