With a push from dad, boy motorcyclist flying high

By Xu Lin (China Daily)

Updated: 2013-08-29

The boy's parents have a roller-skating club in their hometown. Since he started to train his son full-time, his wife has to run the club on her own.

When Wang Ke was 5, his father took him to see a national motocross competition that included a teen category. The father made up his mind to train Wang Ke as a professional motorcyclist.

"The kids in the contest perform very well. Unlike me, Wang Ke still has chances," the father says.

The father built two practice areas for Wang Ke. He also invites professional coaches to their home to teach his son.

Wang Yukun and one of his friends often repair and improve the boy's motorcycles in a 10-square-meter studio, to keep it in top condition.

It costs more than 100,000 yuan ($16,340) for Wang Ke's training every year. He has about a dozen of motorbikes, which cost from several thousand yuan to 80,000 yuan. As of now, he has only two corporate sponsors including the energy drinking company Red Bull, and Wang Yukun believes there will be more as his son improves.

Some think Wang Ke is too small to be learning such a dangerous sport, including his mother and grandparents. But those objections have died down in the face of Wang Ke's good performances in the sport and Wang Yukun's insistence, the father says.

"If everyone forbids one's own child to learn motorcycling, how many years do we have to wait until China has a world-class motorcyclist?" says the father.

In October, Wang Ke is going to France for motorcycling training and motocross co-founded by Chinese Motor Sports Association and French Motorcycling Federation. It will be the first time he receives training from foreign coaches.

"I'm looking forward to it and hope to improve myself and my basic skills," he says.

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