BOUGHEN, HARRISON & HODDER SELECTED FOR GB
Ashton Boughen admits that Great Britain experience is the key to his rapid progress in the sport. The 16-year-old has been called-up for the national squad for this weekend’s FIME Under-19 Pairs Championship Final in Pila, Poland.
Boughen leads a trio of raw talent alongside Luke Harrison and Freddy Hodder against the Czech Republic, Ukraine, Germany, Poland, Sweden and Denmark.
The talented youngster recently finished third in the British Under-21 title at Glasgow and is relishing the new challenges thrown his way.
He said: “It’s obviously a massive thing to ride for your country and I’m proud of that.
“But, to be honest, the main thing is just to gain the experience. I think that’s so important so that I can keep making progress.
“It’s been a whirlwind couple of years in the sport. I’ve had to learn quickly. There’s obviously going to be a lot of ups and downs because of my lack of experience.
“But racing in big meetings abroad for GB obviously helps with that so much.
“It has been crazy busy at times. But that’s the way it has to be to get the bike time to keep learning and hopefully score better.”
Boughen knows that it will be an acid test up against the top youngsters from around the world in Pila.
He said: “I don’t set myself any targets or expectations. I just focus on getting my own set-up right and scoring as much as I can.
“If we are looking good midway through the meeting then you hope you can challenge for a medal.
“We are a fairly inexperienced trio of riders at this level. We’ll give it 100 per cent and see where it takes us. We are all happy to get the call-up for GB.
“The national team give us a lot of backing and I’m grateful for that. Hopefully we can pay it back with a strong result.”
Image courtesy of Steve Hone Photography