A young primary school pupil had the once in a lifetime opportunity to begin a prestigious cycling race for the country’s rising stars on Friday.

Sophie Parkin, who is eight years old, won a competition at her school to design a flag for the cycling race at the School Games in Loughborough.

Burton on the Wolds Primary School was asked to design the flag by Leicestershire County Council as the cycle race was due to go past their school before it was relocated to Prestwold Driving Centre.

And after creating the winning design, Sophie and her friend Ruby Kopel, who is also eight, kicked off the cycling event for the School Games on Friday by waving off the first round of riders.

Sophie said: “It was really fun designing the flag and I really enjoyed doing it.

“I chose the colours because they were the Olympic colours and then I added the Burton owl, and it felt great when I was told I had won.

“I really enjoyed starting the race and it is the first time I have ever done anything like that before.”

Ruby added: “I really enjoyed being here and to have the chance to start the race.

“I thought the design Sophie created was nice. It was a really good design.”

The School Games is a high-performance event for elite youth athletes and a key step on the road to senior success for Team GB’s next generation of athletes.

The event is supported by National Lottery funding from Sport England and delivered by the Youth Sport Trust, with Leicestershire and Rutland Sport among those providing funding.

Around 1,600 of the nation’s finest young sports stars will compete across 12 current and future Olympic and Paralympic sports, seven of which include disability competition.

Burton on the Wolds teacher Trevor Ashley, who accompanied Sophie and Ruby to the cycling event, said: “We looked online at the UCI for their colours and the design. We also wanted to incorporate the school logo, which is an owl, into the design as well.

“It was a good activity to be involved with because the kids do lots of work now with the new curriculum so it was something nice where they could show their creative side and they were really excited to do it.

“A lot of the kids have bikes so they were excited to be a part of the design process and they knew the Olympics was coming so they were all keen to do it – it was voluntary so they didn’t have to do it but every one of the children chose to take part.”

The 2016 School Games is supported by a range of partners including the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Sport England, Youth Sport Trust, Department of Health and British Paralympic Association. The Games take place in Loughborough from 1-4 September 2016. Visit www.2016schoolgames.com for more information.