Junior European Championship skeleton success for borough resident

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Freya making a quick start for borough and country

A borough resident has finished in the top 6 of an international field after competing at the Junior European Bobsleigh Championships held in Innsbruck, Austria.

20 year old Freya Tarbit, an athlete on the British Bobsleigh and Skeleton Team, had the fastest push start in the skeleton competition held on 18th February.  She clocked a combined time from two runs of 1 minute 48.82 seconds, to finish 5th out of 26, just over a second behind the first place competitor.

Freya, who comes from Ockbrook, joined British Skeleton in the summer of 2019 as part of the latest athlete intake.   Her path into the sport came through the Discover Your Gold UK Sport talent ID campaign as thousands of young hopefuls were whittled down to just eight aspiring skeleton stars, with two more joining them later that summer.

Freya’s interest in skeleton had begun at an early age - she had first wanted to try the sport at just 14 years old.  She signed up for one of the BBSA’s public taster sessions at 16 but pulled her hamstring so wasn’t able to attend. 

Her father planned to sign her up again for the following summer’s sessions but while looking on the BBSA website to do just that he saw the Discover Your Gold process advertised so Freya went from wanting to try the sport to hoping to make a career out of it!

Prior to making the switch to skeleton, Freya was a long jumper and had been Derbyshire county champion multiple times, competed in the finals at the English Schools and medalled at the Midland Championships.

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