ZOE Robinson is a young woman on a mission.

The ex-Radcliffe Riverside pupil recently won a gold medal with the Great Britain team in the Boccia World Cup in Canada and now is aiming for a paralympic gold in Beijing in 2008.

For Zoe and her team Boccia is as thrilling as football is to Wayne Rooney and she is determined to get the sport better known.

"Just because we sit in wheelchairs to play doesn't make it any less exciting. If we were winning medals at football everyone would take notice but because it's Boccia people don't really understand.

"If the England football team came home with gold medals everyone would say wow'," said the bubbly 17-year-old, who lives in Lowercroft.

Zoe, who has cerebral palsy, takes her Boccia training as seriously as any other athlete.

She spends 20 hours a week training and does weight training and works on a bench press at home to build up her arm muscles.

Her three times a week training paid off when she came home to Bury with a gold medal from the competition in Canada but now it's an Olympic gold Zoe is hoping to secure.

There is no guarantee she will be in the Great Britain team for the paralympics in Beijing next year but if determination is anything to go by then Zoe will put every effort into being selected.

The A-level Bury College student - who hopes to start at a new college in Liverpool in September to study nutrition and fitness - is ranked around 70 in the world and that is some achievement after just 18 months playing the game.

"Boccia is a serious business," explained Zoe. "There are lots of rules and it is taken seriously."

It became a paralympic games sport in Barcelona in 1992 and is gradually increasing in popularity, giving even severely disabled people the opportunity to enjoy the challenge of competitive sport.

It is played from a wheelchair and is a bit like bowls, said Zoe's mum, Jill (45).

Thanks to mum and dad Carl (43), Zoe is able to travel the country - and the world - playing her beloved game.

"It does take a lot of effort," said Jill. "And a lot of money," added Zoe with a smile.

Zoe has been to the Czech Republic playing Boccia and will travel to Hong Kong in August for a pre-paralympics training camp.

Competing in the sport of Boccia has given Zoe a social life and the opportunity to meet other people and make new friends.

"It is great to meet other people who are in wheelchairs and who understand how I feel," said Zoe.

Zoe, who has a 16-year-old sister Charley, has a wicked sense of humour and, like any other teenager, loves chatting to her friends on the internet.

Her cerebral palsy affects all four limbs although she can walk, a little, with the help of sticks but prefers to use her wheelchairs.

Zoe has two wheelchairs - a manual one for competition and a motorised one provided by the Bolton branch of the Variety Club of Great Britain which gives her more mobility in her daily life.

It can rise to the level of people she is speaking to, giving Zoe the opportunity to be on the same level as able-bodied friends.

"It's an advantage sometimes but at other times I might not want to be at eye level," she said with a wicked grin.

BOCCIA FACTFILE:

It is a game of precision with leather balls thrown as close as possible to a white target ball (the jack) on a long, narrow field of play

It is pronounced "Botcha"

It is a non-contact, target driven sport which relies on skill and subtlety rather than size, strength or speed - although upper body strength, particularly the arms, can be helpful

There are various ways of delivering the ball, including an under arm throw, as demonstrated by Zoe on the left, rolling the ball into play and releasing the ball from above head height

There are 13 balls in the set.