Aylesbury boy stars at British BMX Championships finishing eighth

Competing against fellow youngsters, Lenny Bowcock, who lives in Berryfields, came eighth in his age range at BMX’s biggest UK event.

With over 1,500 competitors making the trip to Bournemouth, including Olympic gold medalist Bethany Shriever its the UK’s premier competition.

Lenny qualified for the competition via the BMX East region, at the event he had to navigate his way through three heats.

Known as motos, 32 eight-year-old racers were whittled down over a number of rounds.

After the heats, remaining competitors faced off in quarter finals, before moving onto the semis, and a grand final.

The remaining eight riders battled it out in the final, each receiving a prestigious trophy, having survived an exhausting day of racing.

Lenny said: "I was desperate to prove myself and make the final, I’m so happy, I just love riding my bike, but racing is so exciting."

The Aylesbury youngster was also riding on behalf of the YoungMinds charity, which offers mental health support to children and their parents.

Lenny’s father Pete, reports that such is his child’s love of the sport, he rides his bike everyday, pedalling over for formal training twice a week at Milton Keynes BMX Club.

Pete, and Victoria, Lenny’s mother, added: “[We are] Incredibly proud of Lenny, the hard work and dedication he has shown, his passion for riding is amazing. Let’s hope we get the new pump track facility coming to berryfields up and running ASAP so that we can help even more kids stay fit/healthy and grow some skills. Every Olympic athlete started somewhere.”