Kemp’s fighting fit for war of the Worlds (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Kemp’s fighting fit for war of the Worlds

6:05pm Monday 11th March 2013 in Sport

STACEY Kemp is ready to show the world what she can do after battling back to full fitness.

The Chorley skater and her partner David King compete in the World Pairs Ice Skating Championships in Canada this week free from the injuries that have plagued them both for the last six months.

Kemp, 24, has now recovered from a knee injury that hampered her at the European Championships in January while King is fit after ankle problems.

“We are both fully fit and competition ready,” said the former Blackburn College student.

“This is the first time we have been ready to competed without injuries this season.

“So we are ready to go out and show the world what we can do.”

Kemp and King, who are engaged, finished in 10th place in the European Championships in Croatia.

Now she is hoping for a season’s best performance in Ontario which will also double as a qualifier for the Winter Olympics in Sochi next year.

“We were just happy to compete in Croatia and it was a bonus that we had two great skates,” she said. “If we skate clean we can achieve season best scores at the World Championships.

“We won’t know if we have qualified for the Winter Olympics until the end of the event.”

The pair, who now live in Tampa, Florida, had a two week stop over in East Lancashire were they trained at Blackburn Arena – the base where they first met and trained.

“We train and live in America now but we needed somewhere to train while we were at home,” said Kemp. “It was where I first learnt to skate when I was six years old and met David so it was nice to be back there.”