A TROUPE of hip-hopping skaters have won a national television competition to tour with ice dancing legends Torvill and Dean.

The Oxford Freestylers battled it out against hundreds of hopefuls to get to the final of Ice Stars, part of the popular ITV1 show Dancing on Ice, and glided away with the prestigious prize on yesterday’s show.

Watched by an audience of millions, the group of six skaters — aged 14-24 — wowed the judges with their hip-hop and breakdance- inspired routine, performed to rapper Kanye West’s song Stronger.

Youngest member, 14-year-old Jordan Heeley, from Preachers Lane, Oxford, said it felt “stupidly good” to win.

He added: “The whole thing has been great.

“To be able to have days off school doing what I love has just been amazing. Hopefully it will lead to big things for us.”

Joey Tsang, 24, from Cowley, added: “And even if it doesn’t, we won’t have lost anything.

“We’ll still have had a brilliant time and will still carry on doing what we love. “ The group, which also includes Wayne Oliver, 22, from Headington, Lawrence Orsborn-Edwards, 18, from Blackbird Leys, Andy Hastings, 21, from Littlemore, all in Oxford, and Rob Firkins, 18, from Abingdon, formed just over a year ago.

They bonded over their shared love of breakdancing and hip-hop in skating sessions at the Oxford Ice Rink and set up the group specifically to get on the show.

The Ice Stars competition was set up to search for the nation’s hottest ice skating talent.

It was judged by Olympic skaters Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean who won gold at the 1984 Winter Olympics dancing to Ravel’s Bolero.

The competition ran alongside the popular Dancing on Ice programme, which this year has starred former Page Three model Melinda Messenger and former England footballer Graeme Le Saux.

As winners, the group will now dance live at the Dancing on Ice final, which is being broadcast next weekend.

And they will be performing alongside Torvill and Dean — and past and present stars of the show – in a special tour, the dates for which are yet to be confirmed.

Mr Hastings said the group would be busy working on a special routine for the series finale on Sunday. He added: “We are preparing something completely different, with bigger and better jumps.

“We do have a song that we are working to, but everyone will have to watch the show to find out what it is.”

awilliams@oxfordmail.co.uk