Elstead climber Toby Roberts is looking forward to this summer’s Paris Olympics.

Roberts (19) made history last year by becoming the first British male climber to win a place in the Olympics, and has been busy preparing for Paris.

“Training has been going well,” he said. “After I qualified for the Olympics we made a plan that tried to get me in the best shape possible for Paris 2024.

“After a hard two months base training in Sheffield over the winter there have been some amazing training trips, including three weeks in Tokyo, two World Cups in China and a training and World Cup week in Salt Lake City, as well as Innsbruck and Paris.

“I don't know what else I could have done to be in better shape. The training has been incredibly physical and I've made best use of my time. I couldn't be happier with where I'm at.

“The training now is very competition specific. It's more about a lot of intensity over shorter periods and then a lot of recovery – it’s important to recover physically and mentally. I'm training for around four hours a day very specifically on Olympic-style climbs.”

Roberts isn’t putting too much pressure on himself ahead of Paris, and says he is concentrating on doing himself justice.

“I'm focused on producing the best performance I can,” he said. “If I come away from Paris knowing I climbed my best then I will be happy with whatever result.

“Targeting a medal doesn't help you achieve a medal – I'm simply targeting to try to do my absolute best by being in the best physical and mental shape I can.

“It's nice for it to be a near-home Olympics. The support has been amazing and everyone is excited. My job is to focus on the climbing.”

Roberts thanked his parents Tristian and Marina for their support throughout his climbing journey.

“I'm incredibly grateful for everything they've done,” he said. “When I was younger we used to go straight from school to the climbing gym – it became normal to eat dinner our of Tupperware and get back home late at night before doing it all again the next day.

“I used to think it was normal to do homework in between training sets and spend every school holiday away training and climbing.”

Roberts hopes the sport of climbing will grow, and is encouraging everyone to give it a go.

“Climbing is such a natural thing for people to do – I feel everyone should try it at least once,” he said.