WHEN the island’s mountain biking team for Rhodes was announced this week, there was one notable name missing. At the last NatWest Island Games two years ago in Shetland, Jimmy Carling, then 17, turned in an incredible performance to take silver in the cross-country race.

But the 19-year-old has fallen out of love with the discipline and he did not put himself forward for selection for this summer.

‘I just decided I didn’t want to go down the route of competing in the cross-country,’ said Carling.

‘I enjoyed it last time but I want to venture more into downhill. It’s not that I’ve stopped competing, I’ve just changed direction.

‘My goals lie in downhill and on that side of things and not cross-country. It’d probably be nice to go to Rhodes but I don’t think I’ll miss it.

‘I was getting to the point of killing myself for a bit of gold and with the sacrifices in your social and family life, it was getting impossible to train properly for my job as a tree surgeon. It didn’t weigh up.’

Instead, Carling is concentrating on going to the French Alps in July to compete in the world’s longest downhill event, the Megavalanche in Les Arcs.

‘Hopefully I’ll get into the professional finals for that,’ he said.