SHE may be just 16 years of age, but mountain bike sensation Maya Atkinson already has her sights on the world stage as she looks to take her cycling career to the next level.
Maya, of Crapstone, has recently returned from racing in Scotland at the Fort William leg of the British Downhill Series, where she finished a respectable fifth position.
From there, despite being in the midst of her GCSEs, she competed at the Bala leg of the series, finishing seventh.
And after a string of impressive performances up and down the country, Maya insists she is ready to step up to the next level of the sport, with the World Championships looming next year.
‘I’ve been doing a couple of the national races recently including Fort William, which is where they held the World Cup earlier this month,’ she said, who benefits from being part of the SSE Next Generation programme.
‘The first time I raced at Fort William was really daunting but it’s a really cool track and so many famous people were there too.
‘They’re all World Cup standard so it was quite daunting but it was fun to race on the same track as them. I’m just trying to get better for the National Championships, which are in July. I was the national champion last year so I’m hoping I can retain my title, but there are some new girls this year so I’ve got a lot more competition.
‘Next year, I am thinking about competing at the World Championships because I will be 17 then so I will be able to race as a junior. They are in Cairns, Australia and we have family there so we thought it would be a nice visit for them as well. I was actually born in Australia, so it would be really cool to race there. I haven’t done so before and I think it will be very different because it will be a lot drier than England.’
After being chosen to receive support and funding as part of the SSE Next Generation programme, Atkinson will now get the opportunity to attend workshops on nutrition, media training and much more.
And as her career develops over the coming year, she admits having the support of scheme will help her no end, as well as that from those a little closer to home.
‘I couldn’t do all of this without my family,’ she said. ‘Fort William is a 12-hour drive so I need them to drive me and feed me, but it’s a really nice family thing that we do together.
‘Most weekends are taken up by cycling, so it’s very time-consuming but I enjoy it so much that it’s all good. SSE’s support is really good, and their funding helps me a lot. It helps me pay for competitions because you have to pay an entry fee, but it also helps with travelling to races.
‘I really hope that I can be a professional one day so their backing is really helping me on the way to realising that dream.’
SSE’s Next Generation programme partners with SportsAid to provide financial support and training to the sports stars of the future. Keep up to date with the latest @SSENextGen