While it may still be somewhat premature to call Lewis Stewart the next Sir Chris Hoy or Callum Skinner, he is certainly heading in the right direction.
The 18-year-old track sprinter has racked up a string of impressive results in recent months including winning a bronze medal in the team sprint in the European Junior Championships as well as becoming British junior champion in the keirin.
As the World Junior Championships kick-off today in Montichiari, Italy, Stewart is looking to continue his progress through the elite ranks and having shown such good form this year, the teenager is in confident mood.
“I’m really looking forward to the Worlds and this is my last year in juniors so it’s a pretty important one for me,” he said.
“I competed in the World Juniors last year and it didn’t go great but I’m in a better place this year and so am really looking forward
to seeing how I get on.”
Stewart is a member of the GB Academy programme which has produced the likes of Skinner, the Scot who became Olympic champion in the team sprint at Rio 2016, and while nothing is certain in elite sport, Stewart looks to be in a good position to follow in the footsteps of his compatriot. At the European Junior Championships earlier this summer, Stewart, alongside Hamish Turnbull, broke the British junior record in the team sprint, a record previously held by a certain Mr Skinner.
It was, admits Stewart, a timely boost for the pair and a sure sign that they are going in the right direction. “Breaking the national record was definitely a big deal,” said the Glaswegian. “Knowing that Callum Skinner, who was part of the team that held the record previously, has gone on to have so much success is really positive for us. That’s been a big confidence boost.”
Stewart was a relatively late starter when it comes to track cycling. Having been a cyclist in his younger years, he gave it up to pursue athletics. However, the Sir Chris Hoy velodrome being built in Glasgow in the lead-up to the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games lured him back on to a bike and he hasn’t looked back since. The speed of his ascent up the ladder has, admits Stewart, surprised even himself.
“When I was 15, I started doing really quite well and I remember thinking hold on, I’m actually okay at this, I could maybe give this a shot,” he said.
“So I started training harder and smarter and I got on the lowest rung of the GB programme. It all came pretty suddenly – it went from one year, me looking at the riders on GB thinking that they were amazing and that I’d love to be one of them one day to the next year, being in amongst it and then this year, I became British champion.”
While the World Junior Championships is Stewart’s primary focus for now, he will find out in the coming weeks if he will be invited to become a full-time rider at British Cycling’s base in Manchester rather than visit once a month as he does currently.
Considering that it is called “the medal factory”, it is no surprise that Stewart is itching to become a part of the lauded training squad full-time.
“The programme is great,” he said. “When I first got on to
the GB programme, I went on an induction camp and the first thing they did was put up a slide which gives the percentage chance of you getting medals based on who’s been on the programme previously.
“There’s something like a 13 percent chance that you’ll get a gold medal at the Olympics. It’s pretty special being part of that.
“You look at guys like Jason Kenny and Callum Skinner and know that they’ve gone through this exact process when they were my age and now, Jason is one of the most successful British Olympians ever and Callum is Olympic champion. It’s surreal being involved in it, but it’s also pretty incredible.”
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