WORLD champion runner Bethy Woodward has jetted off to South Africa to kick-start her winter training for this summer’s Paralympics.

The Ringwood teenager has travelled to Stellenbosch, near Cape Town, with some of the Great Britain London 2012 team for the latest stage in her preparations for the games.

Bethy, who went to school in Ringwood and was a student at Brockenhurst College, is the current 400m world champion after taking gold at the IPC Athletics World Championships in Christchurch, New Zealand, last January. She was also a bronze medallist in the 100m relay event at the same championships.

Bethy, the youngest of four children, has cerebral palsy affecting one side of her body but says she has always dreamed of running in an Olympic Games.

“I have been working really hard with my coach in London all through the autumn, training six days a week in the run-up to Christmas, but we have been doing much of that indoors” she said.

“You cannot beat outdoor training though. This is 2012 and we have got the Olympics. To be part of that is what I have dreamed of ever since I started running, I have to pinch myself sometimes to even believe that it is true.”

Bethy said she would continue to train in London on her return to the UK later this month before getting some more warm weather training under her belt in Spain in April.

“This is going to be an amazing year for this country and an amazing year for me too, hopefully.”