A Three Towns teen has been selected to represent Scotland in the World Karate Federation Under 21 Championships.

Aria Pascaul, a sixth-year student at Ardrossan Academy, will head to Santa Cruz in Tenerife next month.

The 16-year-old will compete in the age 16/17 female category, an opportunity she described as “amazing and a great honour for me”.

Aria, who was the 2016 North Ayrshire Young Sportsperson of the Year, trains at Kokusai Karate Club in Clydebank and is currently a 2nd Dan black belt.

She said: “I have trained with John Welsh at the Maximum Potential Health gym since 2013 and I have recently started work experience on Wednesday evenings with coach John Welsh to gain more experience in what is involved in working with athletes and developing sports programmes to improve their performance.

“My family have had to make a lot of sacrifices to enable me to do my sport and I really do appreciate this.

“I participate in community events and enjoy helping out with the younger students. I believe the achievements I have made to date show the younger students that people from a small town such as Saltcoats can achieve great things but they have to train hard to achieve them.”

Aria is also competing in the British Karate Foundation Championships at the end of this month and the Banzai Cup in Germany at the start of October.

Aria, who has ambitions to study sports science at university, added: “To represent your country is indeed a great honour but it also comes with great expense.

“I would be extremely grateful if any local business would be interested in sponsoring me to help me to continue to compete in my sport at a high level.

If a business is interested please contact joanne.pascual@hotmail.co.uk and help this ‘wee lassie fae Saltcoats’ compete with the best of the best.”