STACEY Kemp has already conquered domestic skating – now she has set her sights on making her mark on the world stage.

The Chorley skater, along with partner David King, take part in the World Championships in Nice this week hoping for a best ever finish.

It will be the sixth time the pair have competed in the ‘worlds’ but this year they have a genuine chance of joining the sports elite and breaking in to the top 10.

“We have been skating well in training and we are excited about going to Nice to show the world how much we have improved this season,” said the former Blackburn College student. “We are confident and are really looking forward to competing.

“It is the last competition of the season so we want to have a happy ending.”

Kemp and King, who is from Carlisle but who also studied at Blackburn College, clinched a record-breaking seventh consecutive British pairs title in November.

They followed that up with a best ever result in the European Championships when they finished in ninth place overall all at the Motorpoint Stadium in Sheffield.

But she knows it is in the Blue Riband event of the World Championships and the Winter Olympics by which they will really be judged.

They take part in the qualifying round in France today followed by the short programme on Wednesday and free programme on Friday.

“The World Championships is the biggest skating event after the Winter Olympics and our hopes are to get a personal best score and an improved place from last year,” said Kemp who finished 13th last time out with long-term partner King.

The pair used to train under Stephen Pickervance and Dawn Spendlove at Blackburn Arena before moving out to Poland.

However, they have recently moved their training camp to Tampa in the America.

“We were offered the chance to train in Tampa with some very good coaches and it was an offered too good to turn down,” added Kemp who went to St Catherine’s Primary School in Chorley. “Training is perfect and we love every minute of it.”

Once the world championships are over there will be a little ‘down time’ before they begin preparing for the Winter Olympics in Sochi next year.

“We will take a few weeks out to see our family and friends before we get back to the grind of training.

“Next season is a big one because it is the qualifications for the Winter Olympics so there is lots of hard work ahead.”