THREE Gawler locals will travel to Queensland this week to represent South Australia at the Australian Artistic Skating Championships.

Members of Gawler’s Skate Crew Artistic, Lucy West, Olivia Burg and Dekoda Hall were selected in the side recently, with Olivia and Dekoda set for their first national stint.

Artistic roller skating is similar to figure skating but with roller-skates, as they do similar jumps, spins and routines.

Skate Crew Artistic coach Lucy West was delighted to see how far Olivia and Dekoda had come after starting the sport just over a year ago.

“The girls didn’t do a routine a year ago, so they’ve gone from doing nothing to competing at nationals,” she said.

“They’ve trained incredibly hard, we’re training 13 hours a week at the moment, so we’re putting in a lot of effort to get them ready for nationals.

“They really deserve to be going, we’re hoping to come home with some medals, but we’re just happy if they skate a good skate.”

For West, she’s striving to represent Australia at the Oceania Artistic Skating Championships.

“We’re hoping to do well over there,” she said.

“This is my sixth or seventh year of nationals, I won it last year which was exciting.

“I’m trying to dedicate myself to coaching and I’m really proud of the progress the girls have made.

“We’ve started a new club this year called Skate Crew Artistic, and we’re looking at growing in the future.”

11-year-old Olivia came from a recreational skating background before she took up the sport.

“I just came from recreational skating and saw the girls training one night and that’s what I’ve wanted to do,” she said.

“I’m pretty proud of how far I’ve come.

“Going to nationals has been my dream for a while.”

Another Gawler member, Lucy Laycock, was selected to go to nationals, but was unable to travel.