NatWest Island Games golden girl Sadia Wilson has relocated to the UK where she is attending a top gymnastics Academy as she targets the Rio 2016 Olympics.

Wilson, 13, outlined her potential at last summer’s Island Games in Bermuda where she showed nerves of steel to seize gold in the balance beam and uneven parallel bars.

Following that success, Wilson and her family decided it was best she moved to the UK to continue her development alongside other Olympic hopefuls at the Notts Gymnastics Academy.

Her mother, Komlah Foggo-Wilson, believes the Academy, which is affiliated to British Gymnastics, will give her daughter the best chance of realising her ambitions.

“Based on how well Sadia had been doing, we felt she needed something more to try and get her to the next level,” she said.

“Sadia has set many goals for herself so the only way to help her achieve them was to look overseas.

“She is very happy and has adjusted well to the new environment and new school, which is attached to the Academy, and we’re definitely one hundred percent behind her.”

Wilson, who is living with her grandmother in the UK, will continue to represent Bermuda and hopes to compete at next year’s Junior Pan American Championships in Brazil along with team-mates Danielle Wall and Clara James.

She recently won three gold and a silver at the Sandra Clarke Invitational in a competition, which featured several of Britain’s highest-ranked gymnasts.

“It’s her goal to represent Bermuda at the 2016 Olympic but in the short-term she’s just working her way through her programme to get to that level,” said Foggo-Wilson, who revealed Wilson’s move to the UK had been funded by her family.

“She’s an elite gymnast at the Academy and is training hard with British Olympians. She is fully focused, fully dedicated, fully committed and doing quite well.”

Wilson had been one of the most promising athletes at the Bermuda Gymnastics Association’s (BGA) National Training Centre where she spent four years under head coach Duke Nelligan.

Although disappointed to see Wilson leave the BGA stable, Nelligan believes they are building a development programme capable of satisfying their gymnasts’ international ambitions.

“After the Island Games Sadia proved herself to be a good gymnast and as much as we would have loved to have her stay training here we don’t own these athletes,” he said.

“It’s tough to lose one of your athletes but when you look at all Bermuda sports the top guys are training outside of Bermuda.

“My design is see the top gymnasts stay here in Bermuda and build our programme strong enough so that they don’t feel the need to do that.”

Nelligan said he understood Wilson and her family’s decision to enrol the teenager at the Notts Gymnastics Academy, where she will receive “special attention” as part of a smaller group.

“Sadia’s just turned 13 and her parents were looking at the window closing rather than opening,” said Nelligan, a former head coach at the University of Maryland.

“They felt that if they didn’t get Sadia to the next level quickly enough she may lose her opportunity to compete on the international stage.

“I think they wanted more of that special attention that comes from being in a smaller group and with people who are doing the same skills as what you’re doing.”