It's not too often that positive news from Northern Ireland finds its way into a local paper in Oxfordshire.

But, at the end of last month, the Provinces' women's gymnastics team won the bronze medal in the North European Championships in Helsinki, Finland.

And what is the link with Oxfordshire? Well - a member of that team was 13-year-old Katie Slader from Alvescot, near Witney, who trains with the Carterton Gymnastics Club.

Katie, who started the sport at the age of five, is eligible to compete for Northern Ireland through her father.

She has been a part of the team for just a few months, but has already helped them secure silver medals in the Celtic Cup competition, and now the bronze in the Helsinki event.

Now she is looking forward to competing in the Commonwealth Games in Manchester next summer.

Carterton's head coach Debra Newton certainly believes that Katie has the potential to get to the top - and sees no reason why she can't achieve her Commonwealth goals.

"I've had Katie here since she was four and a half and she has taken every single opportunity that's come her way," she said.

"She's fortunate to be good enough to be selected for national competition. In fact, she holds a record of competing at all the national competitions since the age of nine.

"As far as I'm concerned, she is more than capable of making the Commonwealth Games, and if she gets there, I don't see any reason why she couldn't do well."

Katie is currently the only member of the Northern Ireland team who does not come from the powerful Salto Club in Belfast.

She was, however, invited to join Salto gymnasts on a special summer training camp in Philadelphia, USA, which gave her the opportunity work with the other members of the team, and at the same time, get down to some high-quality training. She had to raise the travel costs herself, including a successful sponsored silence.

Newton, was able to join Katie on the training camp, thanks in no small part to the financial support given to the Carterton club by the Town council.

"The sponsored silence was incredibly hard for Katie," Newton said. "She's normally such a talkative girl, but she managed it and raised enough money for her air fare."

The trip was of immense benefit to both gymnast and coach, and has been exemplified by recent results.

The success is not only limited to Katie, however. In recent years, Carterton gymnasts have regularly picked up medals of all colours at county and regional competitions.

Just as significant as the competition squad, are the 70 or so boys and girls who attend some of the six general and recreational gym classes which run concurrently with the squad's training sessions each week.

Some of the gymnasts have aspirations of emulating, or ultimately out-performing, Katie.

Many, though, come simply for the enjoyment of doing gym and the exercise and discipline it affords.

The popularity of gymnastics is demonstrated by the fact that the Carterton club's waiting list is more than a year long.

The success of coach Newton, Slader and the other competition squad gymnasts is all the more remarkable considering the limited facilities available to them.

It's believed that Slader was the only gymnast competing in either the Celtic Cup or the North European championship, who is unable to use purpose-built or permanent gym.

The Carterton club have no base so instead use one of the sports halls at the local community college.

Every piece of gym equipment has to be taken out of storage and set up at the start of each of the four sessions per week. In between sessions, it is kept in a store at the end of the gym hall and in a garage. With nearly 100 pieces of kit, that's quite some task!

Furthermore, the temporary gym floor is not full-size, nor is it sprung, so the only time the gymnasts can properly practice their floor routines and many of their more difficult moves, is when they visit other gym clubs.

Hopefully they will find a new home soon, so they can produce some more champions like Katie.