AT just 16 track cyclist Jack Carlin has a while to go before his name is up in lights alongside Sir Chris Hoy — but he insists he is aiming for the very top.

Carlin has been making waves at junior level across Great Britain and hauled in gold medals at the Scottish National Track Championships and the School Games last year.

However the Gleniffer High School pupil is not afraid to dream big and has his sights set on conquering the international stage as a junior — starting this year.

He said: “At the moment it’s just training, sprinting and cycling.

“There aren’t masses of races during the season, maybe five or six so I just keep training hard and building muscle so I can get faster.

“I’ve already got a personal best for one of the times that I wanted to beat by the end of the year so I’m making big improvements, which is always good.

“I was really high up in youth level so I think I should be ok stepping up to juniors.

“There are two others that are probably on a par with me so they are the ones to aim for.

“We’ve got the Junior World Championships, the Junior European Championships and then the Youth Olympics this year — it’s good to aim big.” Such is Carlin’s potential that he has been selected as an SSE Next Generation ambassador, a scheme which offers guidance and support to some of the country’s brightest sporting talents.

One advocate of the programme is six-time Olympic gold medallist Hoy and Carlin admits he is more inspired than ever after meeting him at Loughborough University last week.

He added: “I met him and he’s a great guy.

“He was giving me tips on what to do and he knows what he’s talking about so I’m obviously going to take that on board.

“He was talking about my times and how they’re improving.

“He said he was about 21 when he was getting times I was getting now so it gives me confidence that I’m there or thereabouts.

“It’s great to be a part of the scheme. I got an email through and I didn’t know anything about it but Scottish Cycling put me in an application for it and then I got another email back saying I had been selected.” SSE are partnering with SportsAid to support the sporting stars of the future as part of their commitment to Glasgow 2014 and beyond with their SSE Next Generation ambassador programme. Keep up to date with the latest @YourSSE