GYMNASTICS: LESS than 12 months after breaking her elbow in an horrific training accident Melanie Roberts is on the brink of breaking into Britain's Olympic Games squad.
The 16-year-old Saltney gymnast, who top-scored for Wales at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester, will know this weekend if she is to join her Liverpool clubmate Beth Tweddle, of Bunbury, on the flight to Athens next month.
Both are in action in the British Championships in Guildford which is being used as a final Olympic trial and while Beth's place at the Games is assured - injuries permitting - as a consistently world-class performer, Melanie hopes to sneak into the team at the 11th hour.
She only recently returned to full competitive action in her first year as a senior, taking bronze in the Celtic Cup, winning the overall Welsh title in Cardiff and then collecting personal best scores overall and on the floor in the international against Russia in Liverpool last week.
Born on Friday the 13th, Melanie must have thought her luck had finally run out when she suffered a sickening injury as she dismounted from the bars, at the time her favourite apparatus, at Liverpool Gym Club.
Doctors thought she would never regain full mobility in her arm, but she defied the odds to make a full recovery.
'I am back to normal,' she said. 'I have regained my confidence, although I must admit I am still a little wary when I compete on the bars which used to be my favourite apparatus. The floor is my favourite piece now.'
There are 10 girls bidding for a coveted place in the squad.
Eight will travel and six will compete in Greece following final preparations at the British Olympic team's holding camp in Barcelona.
'I am the youngest taking part, so I will have other opportunities in the future if I don't make it this time' she said.
'Because of this I feel I have nothing to lose. But I feel confident and I am just going into the competition to give it my best shot.
'I'm not feeling any pressure. Most of that will be on the other girls and that may help me to give a relaxed performance.'
Even if she doesn't make Athens Melanie is looking forward to taking part in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, but before that there are the Commonwealth Youth Games in Bendigo, Australia, at the end of the year and another trip Down Under for the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.
