Sacrifice, commitment and determination pay off for Inverness Highland dancer
An Inverness schoolgirl has displayed great resilience in making her return to the world stage.
Lily Kelman bounced back from injury to not only compete, but shine amongst the world’s best Highland dancers at the 2023 Cowal Gathering Highland Dancing World Championships.
The 16-year-old, of Dalneigh, competed in the Junior section – a category for people aged between 16 and 18 years old. It was a step up from the Juvenile section in which she won the world title last year.
Lily finished runner-up in an age division with more than 100 dancers.
Her mum Yvonne, who was also a Highland dancer, spoke proudly of her daughter's recent achievements: “Her goal was to qualify. Then on Saturday it was just about going out there and enjoying it.
“She had worked so hard to be able to dance on those famous Cowal boards. Lily danced her socks off and I think that's how she did so well.”
In the final, the Inverness High School pupil won gold in the Highland Fling and was narrowly pipped at the post by Canadian Olivia Burke for the overall Junior title.
Yvonne revealed the challenges that Lily faced in the lead up to the event and her display of grit and determination in being able to compete at this level: “After winning the juvenile title last year there was a huge amount of pressure put on Lily when she went to different competitions while being the reigning world champion at that time. There were a lot of people watching her.
“To be able to cope with that she just trained hard and she still went out to competitions and that helped her to get over that and to keep her ability up. The training that is involved to be at that high level is quite intense and there is a lot of pressure.
“She did have a hard year though, she won the Glasgow Championships in March but she picked up an injury so she had been off for about four months and she was struggling to train because of that.”
Lily is still struggling with the injury that is causing pain in her shin and calf area. She is receiving ongoing treatment to strengthen it in a bid to fully recover.
“In June/July she started to train small amounts and was getting quite a lot of physio," Yvonne said. "She managed to get through a championship only at the end of July. She went on to win the British title in Musselburgh as well as the Commonwealth title which was a week before Cowal. Those two titles were a huge boost for her confidence to go into the World Championships.
“It took a huge amount of hard work these past six weeks. Sacrifice, commitment and determination that she put into it as well as talent. Lily is such a talented Highland dancer. But you do need more than just talent. You need the commitment and the drive to get better, the drive to practise as much as you can while also carrying an injury at the same time which was very frustrating for her.
“But she did it, she pulled it out of the bag, she’s got a good mindset, she knows what she needs to do and she goes for it.
“She said herself that the plan for her is to just keep training hard and to try to keep on top of any niggles that she might have within her body. Highland dancing is very, very hard on the body so we have a great physio sports therapist who is helping her both physically and mentally with her training and she will try and go to as many championships as she can in preparation to keep her fitness and endurance up to speed with her talent.”
