Three cheers as team heading from Telford to World Championships in America

Cheerforce Ten's senior pom team, The Ladies of Ten, will be flying off to Orlando, Florida, to compete next year.

The team, based in Ketley, was awarded its place in the championships by the British Cheerleading Association (BCA) following a performance at a qualifying competition in May.

They will be representing the BCA in the International Open Pom Dance Division.

Rachael Swinnerton, 32, founded Cheerforce and also works as head coach for Team England.

She said: "It's such a great achievement for everyone involved.

"The team have been training for this opportunity for the past five years, and we are so proud to see all their hard work pay off.

"For a team from Telford to make it through to the World Championships and to be able to fly them out to Orlando to compete is just incredible.

"I think it really coincides with the Telford at 50 celebrations and it's another bit of success to come from this town in its 50th birthday."

Cheerforce Ten are one of only three British teams that will be competing in April 2019.

Rachael said: "Most of the time the teams that go through are from the big cities like Birmingham, Manchester or London, so that just underlines what an achievement it is.

"The teams who make it through usually get given awards at the qualifying competition, but as we didn't find out until after, I wanted to make the announcement as special as possible."

The team found out seven days after the official announcement, when the director of the BCA, Tez Shackleton, travelled to their training session and awarded them with their medals.

Cheerforce Ten originally trained at Castle Hall in Bridgnorth and did so for about six years, before moving to their own purpose built premises in Ketley two years ago.

The competing team of 18, who range from 13-years-old to 30, along with five reserves and three coaches will be joining more than 16,000 athletes, and multiple teams from more than 40 countries.

The Ladies of Ten have now upped their training in preparation, with two dance sessions a week, three stamina sessions and an additional monthly session.

"We're so excited to compete and we're training as hard as we can," said Rachael.

"All of the athletes are very dedicated and we've already started learning new techniques.

"Our next step is aiming for sponsorship, as all our athletes have to fund the trip themselves, we're looking towards our local community for help in getting them to the championships."

Having opened their doors in 2011, Cheerforce now train more than 400 athletes at their gyms in Telford and Carlisle.

The teams perform at a range of local and national events and have featured on TV and radio programmes, such as Channel 4's Gadget Show.

Anyone interested in sponsoring can contact Rachael Swinnerton at cf10believe@hotmail.com