AN aspiring team of cheerleaders from Okehampton have their sights set on international stardom after being selected to compete in the ‘Cheerleading Worlds’ in the US next April.

Brooke Hallett, 11, Immy Spooncer, 22 and Poppy Scullion, 12, were picked to form part of a UK team heading to the world championships open champion series at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida in April 2024.

As well as training in Okehampton, at a group Immy leads for youngsters in the town, they also head to Bristol once a month to train with the rest of the UK squad.

This once-in-a-blue-moon opportunity is one that the girls are determined to seize, even though it comes at quite a financial cost. They need to raise £5,600 to cover the costs of the three of them attending the championships, including flights, accommodation, transport, kit and the competition entry fees.

The girls are throwing themselves into fundraising, with quiz nights and tabletop sales as well as selling sweet cones.

They also have a Go Fund Me page where people are welcome to sponsor them, which can be found under ‘Help Brooke, Immy and Poppy get to worlds’.

Immy explained that Brooke and Poppy started training with her about five years ago, and showed promise in the sport.

The kind of cheerleading that the girls do is very acrobatic,going under the name of All Star Cheerleading, “It isn’t about pompoms,” said Immy. “It is stunting, tumbling jumps and dance. It is very physical.”

She herself has competed in the sport for her country.”I do a lot of tryouts,” she said. “I was on Team England, I represented the country and that is how I found out about this competition and I thought we should have a go.”

The Cheerleading Worlds sees teams from across the world come together to compete for glory across a variety of cheerleading divisioms.

The organisers report that 517 teams will be taking part in the 2024 Cheerleading Worlds from 21 countries worldwide.