THREE athletic youngsters from a village primary school are tumbling to the top in their chosen sport.

Simon Peart, Robert Agar and Sophie Chambers have put Esh Winning Primary School, in County Durham, on the map in the world of acro-gymnastics.

Backed by the expertise of coaches at the centre of excellence in the sport, at Deerness Valley Comprehensive School, in nearby Ushaw Moor, the trio have got to the British Schools Championships, held in Stoke, next month.

Simon and Robert, both aged ten, earned their ticket to the national finals by winning the under 11 boys' pairs category in the qualifying competition, the North of England Schools' Acro-Gymnastics Championships, last weekend.

Simon was also partnering nine-year-old Sophie in the under-11 mixed pairs event, in which they beat a duo from Middlesbrough's Pallister Park School, to take first place.

It means that Simon will compete in both boys' and mixed categories at the national event.

The success complements the links the primary school has fostered with the Deerness Valley Comprehensive, a recognised UK Sports Institute Gymnastics High Performance Centre and part of the World Class Start programme, which aims to identify and nurture talent.

Led by coach Karl Wharton, a national coach and mainstay of the Deerness Valley centre, a talent identification programme at the school led to 15 Esh Winning youngsters being invited on to the Start development programme, with speedy results for Simon, Robert and Sophie.

They now go to Stoke at the end of april for the national championship.