SHE may have nearly come crashing down to earth the following day, but Emilia Shuttleworth hit the heights when she took the British Schools’ Cycling Association national title.

The pupil at Hollymount RC Primary School, who rides for the Tameside-based Mossley Cycle Race team, made the journey to Yorkshire for the association’s renowned event.

Emilia excelled at the Brownlee National Triathlon Centre in Leeds, coming first in her race, which involved seven laps of the 1.6km undulating track, reaching speeds in excess of 50kph.

Victory means ‘the Flying Shuttle’ is now the BSCA Under-11s National Circuit Race champion

There was no time to bask in her new-found success, however, as the following day Emilia was up at 6am to head for Oulton Park motor racing track in Cheshire for the TLI National Junior Circuit Race Championships.

The 15km under-12s race got under way at a hectic pace, and Emilia only just managed to avoid a bad crash with numerous riders going down on the damp tarmac, some of whom required medical treatment.

The race became very spread out following that pile-up but Emilia was able to get back with the main group and came in a well-earned second place.

The youngster, who completes at least 50km each week in training, is looking forward to taking part in more races throughout the summer, most notably the BSCA National Hillclimb in Hampshire and the Irish National Championships, scheduled for August.