Cheerleading championships wow the crowds in Telford - PICTURES and VIDEO
Thousands of athletes donned sparkly outfits, tied their hair in bows and headed to Telford for the annual National Cheerleading Championship.
The town’s International Centre was rammed full of teams of all ages and their coaches and family members as they performed at the British Cheerleading Association’s event.
On Saturday a group of women in matching vests and camo trousers strutted onto the dance stage.
The team, Cheer Stirling Uni (CSU), from the University of Stirling danced in time Beyonce’s Run This World (Girls) while hundreds of spectators watched on.
There was plenty of attitude and hair swinging as they danced in formation to the cheering audience.
Afterwards they ran to the back of the room where they watched the performance back on a screen.
The team’s captain, Jaimie Armstrong, 23, said one of the dancers had injured her leg and finished limping.
WATCH teams compete in the National Cheerleading Championships
“It went amazingly well, I’m so happy, I don’t think I could’ve asked for anything else.
“I’ve come here every year since I started becoming involved in cheerleading in 2013, it’s really well organised and one of the biggest.
“Most people think that cheerleading is just supporting other sports teams.
“When I say I’m a cheerleader people ask which sport I cheer for and I’m like, no. It’s a sport in its own right.
“It can be dangerous with the lifts, one girl fractured her jaw this year but straight away wanted to come back, even today one of the girls came away limping. You just have to do it carefully, but we do get through a lot of ice.
“We practice four times a week so all my friends are from cheerleading.”
One of the directors, Tez Shackleton, said athletes had come from all over Britain for the event.
He said: “There were just over 5,000 athletes over the whole weekend.
“We’ve got teams from Scotland right down to the south coast."
