Worthing cheerleaders celebrate win

Members of the Southcoast Zodiacs cheerleading squad - who train in Broadwater - claimed four trophies from five divisions entered at the BCA Cheerleading Championships at the Nottingham Ice Arena last weekend.

The event was the competition debut for the group of 11 to 22 year-olds, who were invited to compete in a dream event in Florida, USA, next April.

Tasha Whitehead, one of the group's coaches, said: "This is an amazing opportunity for our cheerleaders and we just hope that we can raise enough funds to take this deserving squad.

"They are ecstatic at this achievement, and so they should be. They are the only squad in the south to receive this kind of bid and are hoping they can get the opportunity to represent the south coast and UK over in Orlando in 2007."

The 35-strong team are now hunting for sponsors to help them raise the 1,000 per cheerleader needed to take them to next year's competiton.

In Nottingham - Europe's largest event - the Zodiacs won third place in the Junior Coed Stunt, a 12th place trophy in the Senior Partner Stunt and two fourth place trophies, one for Senior Coed Partner Stunt and Senior Coed Intermediate Cheer.