The 12-year-old, nicknamed Beau ‘n’ Arrow, is re-writing the darts record books just two years after taking up the sport. Her remarkable 2016 has already had people suggesting she could be darts’ first female superstar.
Greaves has enjoyed a sensational 2016, winning the England Classic, The England Matchplay, the Yorkshire Classic, The Welsh Open and, in August, the European Cup.
In the latter she beat off competition from 17 other countries to confirm her status as the sport’s outstanding young talent. That European Cup victory capped off a truly remarkable rise for a schoolgirl who is already widely-recognised on the oche wherever she goes.
She took up the sport after being encouraged by her brother, who recognised an extraordinary talent in the making. A regular on the Yorkshire pub circuit since the age of 10, Greaves won the Doncaster and District Men’s under-30 league last year and, this summer, shared the oche with world number one, Michael Van Gerwen.
He, understandably, was impressed with her ability. She walks to the stage to the old Bros classic ‘When will I be famous’....the answer to that is very soon.
Britain’s young female sprinters have captured the imagination in recent years – and Faith Price of Croydon is the latest in a long-line of 100m specialists who look set to hit the big time.
The then 11-year-old sprinter broke Donna Fraser’s 34-year-old records at the Croydon schools championships in 2015 and has gone quicker since in 2016. Leaving the competition standing in South London, Price is currently ranked number one at national level for the 100m, 150m and 300m. She was also voted as one of the Croydon Guardian’s Young Persons of the Year at the tail-end of last year.
Given the length of time Fraser’s records had stood, the former Team GB athlete was racing as a junior in Price’s age group as far back as 1982, it’s little wonder that her achievements have had the athletics fraternity abuzz.
The likes of Dina Asher-Smith have transformed British women’s sprinting in recent years and Price, who began running with a club in Sutton at the age of eight, clearly has the ability and the hunger to match them. She has already named Asher-Smith has her role model.
At her current rate, she’ll be catching Asher-Smith fast. Little wonder the Herne Hill Harrier is widely- regarded as this country’s brightest young sprint prospect.
The then 15-year-old picked up a gold medal at the 2016 Youth Olympics in Lillehammer, beating off stiff competition from representatives of Europe’s strongest alpine nations in the Ski Halfpipe Freestyle Final.
It was an extraordinary performance from Rowlands and another indication of Great Britain’s emergence in some of winter sport’s newest and most exciting events. Not content with that gold, she then went onto win a bronze in the Slopestyle to complete a memorable Games both for her and her Team GB team-mates.
It was the first time a Great British athlete had won a gold on snow and represented the pinnacle of a young career that began when she fell in love with the sport at the age of just three. She now boasts a five-year unbeaten record in her age category in both the Slopestyle and Halfpipe at the British Championships and there’s clearly plenty more to come, with the Winter Olympics in 2018 now firmly on her radar.
The competition there will clearly be a step-up again but Rowlands has already shown she has the appetite for the big occasion.
