Ruby Stacey, 16, from Tavistock has qualified to represent Great Britain in the Women’s Artistic Gymnastics Team at the World Championships in Kitakyushu, Japan.

Ruby was the youngest girl to be chosen for the team after she competed in the trials at Lilleshall National Sports Centre and will travel out to Japan with two other female gymnasts and six male gymnasts. She qualified on four pieces of apparatus – vault, beam, floor and ‘her favourite and best’ the uneven bars. She will compete in all four pieces in Japan.

She will compete against Olympic gymnast Claudia Fragapane and Commonwealth champion Georgia-Mae Fenton and it will be her first competition as a senior gymnast.

Ruby’s mum, Alison Stacey, said: ‘Ruby recently attended the GB squad training at the sports centre and whilst there it was suggested that she was capable of trialling for the competition. We never dreamt in a million years she had a chance so it was such a lovely and unexpected surprise to hear that she had been successful at these trials.’

Her success is particularly exceptional as Alison said Ruby was not quite ready but decided to give the competition a go anyway. She had been working towards the 2019 championships and ‘was at the top of her game’ then but Covid put her training on hold as she was unable to compete during lockdown.

Ruby and her teammates flew out on Monday along with her coach Jemma Maskell, who was chosen to travel with her. Alison said this was particularly reassuring because it is her debut as a senior gymnast and Ruby’s parents will be unable to go to Japan with her.

The championships were originally scheduled for July 2020 in Copenhagen but the Danish Gymnastics Federation pulled out at the last moment and the competition was postponed as a result of the pandemic. Alison added: ‘It was supposed to be in Copenhagen and we were going to go with her but we won’t be coming to Japan. She’s going out on her own.’

Ruby is also very excited that she is missing school and has only done two weeks of school so far this year because of her gymnastics. Ruby is a pupil at Tavistock College but luckily the school have been very supportive and understanding when she has to take time out for training and competitions, Alison said.

Ruby was three when she started training at the Plymouth Swallows after her nursery teacher suggested she try gymnastics as a hobby because she loved the soft play area so much.

Initially unsure, Ruby’s parents sent her to gymnastics lessons where she quickly rose through the ranks, progressing from training one hour to four hours a week. She now practises her gymnastics five days a week. ‘She has been an English champion and won gold on the uneven bars at the British Championship,’ said Alison.

Alison described her daughter as “lively” and “unafraid of anything”. ‘That’s really good for a gymnast,’ she said. ‘Some gymnasts get mental blocks but Ruby’s never had that.’

According to Alison, Ruby can’t walk anywhere. ‘We’ll go for a walk and she’ll be doing handstands along the way,’ she said.

The competition will take place at the Kitakyushu General Gymnasium and begin this coming Monday and will run for a week, ending on October 24. Ruby and her teammates will train intensively over this week.