The boy accelerated on his motorbike and flew from one earth slope to another, making a perfect landing. It's Wang Ke's debut as a guest performer at the 2013 FIM (Federation of International Motorcycling) Freestyle MX World Championship, in Beijing's MasterCard Center on Aug 17.

"My dream is to be a world champion. I like the feeling of flying," says Wang, an 11-year-old fifth-grader from Anhui province who started to ride motorbikes at the age of 4. Under his father Wang Yukun's training, he has won many awards including the teenager group's championship at the 2012 China National Motocross Tournament at the age of 10.

Wang Ke got his start with off-road racing, and began to learn freestyle motorcycling in April. In that extreme sport, motorcyclists try to impress judges with jumps and stunts such as doing a backflip in the air.

He has to jump from the take-off ramp with his motorcycle and land on the other ramp. It's more dangerous than motocross, which is organized on enclosed off-road circuits.

Wang Yukun says that while motorcycle sport in China is at a low ebb - there is no professional freestyle motorcyclist in China - it is popular abroad.

In April, when Wang Ke practiced freestyle for the first time, his father mistakenly estimated the distance between the two ramps as 8 meters. Wang Ke flew farther than that, landing on the ground directly rather than the ramp and breaking his motorbike.

He fell off again when the distance was increased to 10 meters. It hurt so much that he felt dizzy and couldn't stand still. So he told his father just to estimate the farthest distance he could fly and arrange the ramps.

"My son is very brave. Normal kids will be scared to do it after two failures," Wang Yukun says, adding that success in the sport "depends on one's courage and psychological quality."

On the third attempt, Wang Ke succeeded and flew 19 meters, on a domestic 110cc motorcycle (motorcycle with 110 cubic centimeters displacement). His father applied to The Guinness World Records, hoping to get his son certified as the youngest motorcyclist jumping the longest span.

Wang Ke has often hurt himself in training. "My biggest difficulty," he says, "is that I dare not do stunts when I'm in the sky, as it's too hard."

Last July, he ran into steel wires when joy-riding at high speed in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region without his usual protective gear. He got stitches under his nose and inside his mouth, and was hospitalized for a week.

From then on, he began to wear his helmet, goggles and body protection all the time for motorcycling, not just when he's training.

He has to practice motorcycling on weekends, about two to three hours each day. He does physical exercise for half an hour every day to build his body.

He's also fond of various other sports, such as billiards, football and basketball. He joined the provincial competition in roller-skating for teenagers at the age of 8, and won the championship three years in a row.

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.

xulin@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily USA 08/29/2013 page10)