At the tender age of 10, Molly is keen to try her hand at judo at every opportunity.

The Priorsford School pupil has already made an impact at the Japanese martial art becoming the band A Scottish Judo champion and collecting a gold medal in the Highland Budokan at Inverness last month.

She is the second youngster in Peeblesshire to show great promise at the Olympic sport following the exploits of Walkerburn’s Rae Anderson.

Molly’s mum and her dad Anthony have an important job ferrying her from their Peebles home to training sessions with Sportif Judo at Kelso and Tranent.

“She seems to enjoy every minute and we are just the taxi drivers now,” said Mrs Saxon. “It all started about three years ago when Sportif Judo came to do a training session at Priorsford. Her coach Peter Gardiner told her she was agile and good on the mat.

“She’s in a grand prix series at the moment and is leading and her next aim is to win that.

“Molly loved watching the judo at the Olympic Games when that was on two years ago and she’s already thinking one day about competing in the Games herself.

“But that’s a long way off and it has to be remembered that there are so many distractions for youngsters.”