Mountain bike racer Alex Welburn has secured a place on a UK-wide initiative which supports the development of promising young athletes.
The 17-year-old A-level student from Lichfield, Staffordshire has only been riding for three years but he was the second highest placed youth in the national rankings last year, won silver at the national championships and also placed well in regional road races and the national cyclo-cross series.
Being accepted by the Bring on Tomorrow Foundation means he'll be given help to become a world-class athlete. This includes up to £1,000 of funding, training and development days with three Olympic athletes – swimmer Liam Tancock, taekwondo’s Sarah Stevenson and 110m hurdler Andy Turner – training kit and a year's worth of recovery drinks.
One more place on the scheme, established in partnership by the charity SportsAid and For Goodness Shakes!, is up for grabs for a promising 16-23 year old athlete. All you have to do is explain why you're the athlete they're looking for. Users of their website will vote for their favourite entrant and a judging panel will select the winner from the top 10 most popular.
So far, road cyclist Scott Nielsen is lying in third place with 465 votes, and several other riders are in the running – Jacob James (cyclo-cross, 439 votes), Brennan Townshend (road, 322), Ella Hopkins (road/track, 256), Joe Fox ('cross/road, 226), Ben Sumner (mountain biking, 207) and Ben Pygott (mountain biking, 41). The competition closes on 27 July; to enter or support one of the cyclists, visit the Bring On Tomorrow Foundation website.
