Moray skater Ruby Boyd in national championships
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An ice skater from Moray is taking part in the British Figure Skating championships this week for her sixth – and possibly her final – time.
Ruby Boyd first fell in love with the sport more than a decade ago after venturing onto the ice at the Moray Leisure Centre in Elgin.
Today she travels down to south Yorkshire, full of excitement at the prospect of competing on Thursday and Friday at the IceSheffield rink, the home of British skating.
The 18-year-old is set to perform two programmes – one short, another long.
Both contain a double axel, a fiercely difficult manoeuvre that involves spinning around in the air two-and-a-half times before touching back down again.
Due to the pressures of her studies, however, the teenager remains unsure about what will happen in her life after the championships end.
Back in September Ruby began studying veterinary medicine at Glasgow University.
The demands of her course, allied to the fact she can't yet drive, makes it difficult for her to train as often as she'd like.
Ruby said: "It can take about an hour-and-a-half to get to a rink by public transport.
"Also, my lectures are at different times every week, which doesn't make it any easier.
"That means I've been coming back home to Elgin quite a lot in order to skate with Graeme and Sue."
Graeme Campbell-Summers and Sue Farrell-Summers run Moray Skating Club.
The pair took under their wing Ruby and her elder sister Vivienne .
Both sisters showed immediate talent, however Vivienne eventually had to give up skating seriously after suffering a badly dislocated knee.
While she was growing up a typical week for Ruby involved up to seven training sessions, heading to the rink both before and after lessons at Elgin Academy.
Such dedication saw her called up to the GB squad at the age of just 13.
She went on to represent Britain in competitions in Latvia, Hungary and Italy.
Ruby was also recognised in the SportMoray awards, winning junior sports athlete in 2017 and intermediate sportswoman in 2018.
The pandemic saw the Elgin rink close for 18 months.
Despite that fact, Ruby still managed to qualify for the championships last year.
Looking forward to this year's contest, Ruby is aiming to do as well as she can.
She said: "I love what are known as the 'elements' – that's the spins and the jumps.
"If I did give up competing, I'd miss it.
"But I'm never going to give up skating completely.
"I've been doing it so long now, I don't think I could ever ever stop."
