SPRINTER Seb Tully-Middleton has been fast-tracked as a future British Olympian after being chosen to join the Lloyds TSB Local Heroes initiative.

The 19-year-old former Chenderit School pupil, who lives in Culworth, near Banbury, will receive a cash injection of £1,000 towards training and competing and is one of just 270 youngsters selected from across the UK.

Tully-Middleton attended the Midlands launch of the initiative at Loughborough University, where he was given a masterclass by Olympic silver-medal winning diver Leon Taylor on sports psychology and media training.

And Tully-Middleton – who won 200m gold at last year’s England Under-20 Championships – admitted his new-found support couldn’t be better timed as he bids to make the transition to the 400m.

“This year is my first as an under 23 so I just need to try and hang on in there and learn as much as I can,” said the former Banbury Harrier.

“Winning the England Un-der 20 Championships was crazy, it was the first time I had entered and it surprised me as much as everyone else.”

Now in its third year the Lloyds TSB Local Heroes initiative, which is run in partnership with SportsAid, is designed to ensure more talent reaches the top and to ease the financial burden on parents.

And Taylor, who won Olympic silver at the Athens Games in 2004, said: “Seb has been highlighted by his governing body because he is going places and it makes the world of difference.”

l Lloyds TSB Local Heroes is an initiative in partnership with SportsAid providing support and funding to over 270 of Britain’s most talented developing athletes on their journey to London 2012 and beyond. To find out more about Lloyds TSB Local Heroes visit www.lloydstsb.com/localheroes