Brooklands College student Tom Hide has been named London regional winner of the 2007 OCS Young Sports Person Awards.
The Hampton Hill-based kayaker will collect his trophy at an awards lunch at The Oval on Thursday, November 22, from BBC TV presenter Claire Balding.
Hide, 17, is the UK's fastest junior kayaker over 1,000m and, in the past year, has finished fourth out of 29 competitors at the Marathon World Championships in Hungary, and seventh in the K4 at the World Junior Championships.
He has a burning ambition to represent Great Britain at London 2012 Olympic Games and, having been involved in the sport for seven years, adheres to a strict, six-days-a-week training regime.
The Addlestone Canoe Club member is also completing a national diploma public service course at Brooklands College.
His success and dedication have led to him being selected for the junior 2012 Olympic development programme, which is supporting young people with the drive, ambition, performances and the potential to reach Olympic standard in the next few years.
"I really want to pursue my dream of representing GB at the Olympics. A friend of the family competed in kayaking competitions at longer distances than I race, but this started my interest in the sport," he said.
"My friend and I started going to a canoe club for a bit of fun at first and, really, everything has happened since then. I will be training hard this winter to build on my success of this year.
"My final year of competition in the junior category starts next spring; I am especially looking forward to competing in the European and World Championships in 2008."
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