Young racer following Olympic dream

Mak Larkin has set himself a goal over the last 18 months to be a part of Team GB and to hopefully be selected for the 2024 Olympics.

In pursuit of his dream, he has started with a professional cycle coaching team, TrainSharp, which sets him daily training schedules and monitors him through electronic data each day, ensuring he is working on his strengths and weaknesses.

Now aged 10, Mak has been into cycling since his third birthday (without stabilisers) and over the years he has enjoyed it more and more. He is following in the tracks of his dad Tim Larkin, who cycled for Marin and competed in the World Championships during the 1990s.

This season Mak has performed strongly in the Southern XC Series, a mountain bike racing competition made up of five rounds across the south region.

Despite being one of the youngest riders in the under-12 category, Mak finished sixth out of 58 competitors for the series, and organisers and older elite riders commented that he is one to watch in the future.

Mak also competed in the UCI International XC race at the Olympic track, finishing 11th, as well as around the country in the HSBC Nationals. He finished sixth at Wasing Park and has another round coming up this weekend at Builth in Wales.

He won the under-10 age group in the third round of the Bedgebury Forest CC Summer Series on July 15, and will be hoping to repeat the trick at the fourth and final round on August 19. That will take place a week after the Brighton Big Dog event which he will also compete in.

Mak goes to Sedlescombe Primary School and was part of the very strong school football team which won five trophies during the 2016/17 academic year, as well as being involved in other sporting activities at the school.

Mak balances his cycle training and school work, knowing school comes first.