Once again, we are incredibly proud of Finley, in Year 10, who we know has been really dedicated to his chosen sport of BMX.

Finley has had an exceptionally busy and successful year both at home and abroad. We thank Mr Hough for sharing this update below, along with the photographs.

Domestically Finley has been racing up an age group into the Junior Open category – this is aimed at 16-18 year olds planning on making the step to Championship (Elite) level riding and is the entry point to becoming a professional BMX racer. The racing is much more competitive, dangerous (as they need to jump the Pro lines at the tracks) and much more physically demanding. We are really happy to say that Finley has all but won the series already with 2 races remaining – he can’t be caught on points but he still needs to attend and race at Birmingham, the last race of this series in a few weeks..

Internationally he has continued his excellent form, racing in the 15/16 year old boys – again an entry into the world of professional racing – where even though he hasn’t raced every round he’s currently sat in 4th place overall only 2 points from 3rd – the calibre of racing is Europe is some of the best in the world, he often bangs bars with the current World and European Champions along with a host of other world and European finalists – and the depth of the field is in the hundreds so the competition is outstanding, and a great place to benchmark your progress…

I’ve enclosed a few photos from his recent trip to Teil in the Netherlands where he competed in the UEC European Cup (Series) – here he was fully supported by Team GB who took care of him during racing, this experience was invaluable for him as it gave him a taste of what to expect if and when he is selected to join Team GB on the Olympic Development Program, hopefully in a few months’ time – his application is already in and being processed, and the selection committee will meet in a few weeks to decide which of the 10 boys progress to the next level…

None of this would be possible if it wasn’t for the support of the school, we appreciate this enormously and do not take this for granted…

Finley became the European silver medallist while competing out Valmeira in Latvia in July and will complete the year as the European Number 2.  

He raced super hard and had to battle for every inch of the track, the level of the competition was amazing and after all the knock out and qualifying rounds came second to the 3 time world champion in a very hard fought final race…

We are so proud of the dedication Finley puts into this sport – and of all his successes this has to be the biggest! – finishing second in Europe in his final season as an amateur racer is the perfect transition for him to move into the Junior elite category next year...a week of rest and then to Demark for the World Championships….  It's been a hectic few months!

Thanks for all your support!

What an exciting year you have had Finley and your hard work and dedication have certainly paid off! We look forward to hearing more in the coming year.

You can read more about Finley’s previous success here.