A talented teenager from Medway is to represent Great Britain in a second sport.

Zara Berwick, 17, has already won silver in the Under-18 Ice Hockey World Championships this year.

And now she’s off to the World Skate Games in Italy looking to help her country to roller hockey success.

The Mid Kent College student will be busy, having been selected for both the junior and senior women’s teams.

She travels to Roccaraso at the end of August, with the competition finishing in early September.

Berwick went through a series of trials, followed by a nervous wait for the all-important selection email.

“They have an open England trial and from that, Great Britain get in touch with you,” said Berwick.

“So you do multiple trials and each trial they select a certain amount of people.

“Depending on how many people were at the first trial, they cut normally five at each one and then you get selected as a squad.

“From that squad, you’re selected into the team and then reserves so that trial is the most nerve-racking one because you know you’re either reserve or team.

“They normally send out an email saying the squad will be coming out in the next week and then you’re just sitting there waiting for the email.

“That’s nerve-racking, especially when you’re refreshing your emails and it’s got GB on it but you don’t want to open it because you don’t want the first word to be ‘sorry’.”

Berwick first tried ice skating while on a family holiday in Canada in 2016.

She attended learn-to-skate lessons at Gillingham Ice Rink and subsequently took up ice hockey, currently playing for Guildford Lightning.

Roller hockey - or inline hockey - was a natural addition and has resulted in another Great Britain call-up.

Berwick, a member of Medway Assassins, said: “Most people I know over here do it as extra training for ice hockey or they’ve gone from roller hockey to ice hockey.

“I think it’s the same in most countries because when the ice hockey season finishes, the roller hockey season starts up.”

The GB trials for the World Skate Games included fitness training, and Italy will be full-on for Berwick following selection for the two teams.

She said: “The whole team have to be out for August 28 and our training starts on August 29 and the first game is August 30.

“We’ve got training and a game most days and then when my junior team finishes the tournament, I go straight into training for the senior team, which is September 3, and the first game is September 4 for that.

“The styles for the junior and senior teams are quite similar.

“My junior coach actually plays in the senior women’s team.

“They try to keep us playing a similar way so that it’s not a big jump from junior to seniors.”

Berwick would love to enjoy further international success following her ice hockey experiences and hopes roller hockey can showcase its claims to become an Olympic sport one day.

“For ice hockey, I played in the World Championships last January and this January and a Four Nations tournament in November last year,” she said.

“We came second in the Four Nations and the World Championships this season, which was great.

“Roller hockey isn’t an Olympic sport but we’re hoping to change that.

“There was talk about it and then the whole thing with Covid ruined it a little bit.

“But we are pushing for it and hopefully this tournament will get more recognition for it.”