Nick Ball, the All England Schools' under-15 race walking champion, has set his sights on competing in the Olympics.

Ball, 14, handled the step up to adult competition with ease when he competed in the Steyning 10km road walk and now he has ambitions to emulate his father Jimmy who represented Great Britain.

"My main ambition is to walk in the Olympics," said Ball junior. "I will probably not be mature enough to race in the 2008 Games as I will only be 20 but 2012 is a possibility."

Jimmy Ball never represented his country in the Olympics, but he was among the field at the weekend racing against his son.

Ball junior showed a remarkable maturity in his first 10km race to finish third in the fast time of 52min. 38sec., one minute ahead of county senior champion Richard Emsley.

Ball, who goes to school in Hampshire, normally races over 3-5km but he wanted to test himself over the longer distance.

The youngster, who is not officially old enough to race over this distance until next April, showed no fear of the opposition, but he was unable to match the pace of Steyning club-mate Gareth Brown who walked for England at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester.

By the halfway mark Ball junior had established a lead of more than one minute over his father.

Although he slowed over the second half of the race and his father was able to close to within ten seconds of him, Ball says he has learnt a lot from the experience.

He said: "I will need to race this distance next year. I wanted to make sure I got some experience behind me.

"At the moment I will do a couple of 25 minute training sessions during the week, which is approximately 5km, and then Dad will come with me for a one hour session on a Sunday.

"Dad never made the Olympic team but he did race for Great Britain four times and race walkers tend to be well into their twenties before they reach world class standard as the shortest distance at international level is now 20km."

Success in the discipline is based as much on strength and maturity as sheer pace but Ball junior certainly seems to have the determination to succeed.