14 June,2015 08:11 AM IST | | Agencies
Britain’s 16-yr-old shooter stresses on her 2016 Olympic dreams after admitting to losing focus in 2013
Amber Hill
Great Britain shooting star Amber Hill admits she struggled to cope with the whirlwind of interest, which came with being crowned one of her sport's youngest world champions at the age of just 15.
Amber Hill
Victory in the skeet discipline in Mexico in 2013 catapulted the then 15-year-old schoolgirl to prominence and saw her crowned BBC's Young Sports Personality of the Year - following the likes of Wayne Rooney and Tom Daley. But Hill buckled under the weight of expectation at last year's Commonwealth Games and heads into the skeet event at the European Games in Baku next week.
Determined
"Last year was an incredible year for me but I was only 15 and I didn't quite know how to deal with it all, and it became a bit overwhelming. Things didn't go as well as I had hoped but I have learned a lot from my setbacks and I'm determined that this is the year to really make things happen."
Hill left school after completing her GCSEs and subsequently enrolled in a course to become a qualified beautician at The Beauty Academy in Reading. In April, she tweeted how she is learning to master doing French manicures. But she insists shooting remains very much her priority and victory in Baku would ensure she earned Great Britain a direct quota place for Rio, giving her an excellent chance of fulfilling a career-long goal and reaching the Olympics.
