Matthew Herring intends to push himself all the way when he competes in the US Junior National Triathlon Championships on Saturday.

The teenager will be taking part in the World Championships in Cancun, Mexico later this year and will be using this weekend's event as a barometer to see how far he has come and how much further there is to go.

After placing 19th at the Canadian Regional Championships a few weeks ago Herring is hopeful of another good performance.

The event is being held in Bristol, New Hampshire and he will be competing in the 16-19 year-old category.

“I am just coming up into this age group,” he said last night before setting off for the US with his parents. “And it is the same one that I will be competing in in Cancun.

“I heard about it at the beginning of the year and I have basically been training with this in mind. I am using it to see where I am before I go to the Worlds.”

Prior to going to Canada Herring singled out his run as an area for improvement and he has been working on it over the past few weeks.

“I have improved my run a lot,” he said. “It's a draft legal race and so it basically comes down to the run. I have the swim and I have bike so I just need to work on the run.

“I have more general speed now. I always had the stamina but I didn't have the speed to keep up. I've also improved my form quite a bit.”

Herring put his improvement down to the help he has had from coach Steve Burgess.

“He has been coaching me twice a week and he is a great coach,” said Herring. “He and his work partner have been working on my arms, getting them to move more and getting faster leg turnover.”

Herring said he was under no illusions about the task ahead of him, but was feeling confident.

“In Canada I came 19th out of about 50,” he said. “I want to get in the top half again but ideally I'd like to get even lower.

“I am going to go all out - I want to see where I am.”

When he returns to the Island Herring will begin preparing for next week's Bank of Bermuda Triathlon.

“It's a great race and this year will be pretty tough,” he said. “There's really five main guys in the race - myself, Kent Richardson, Jamie Pedro and Andrew Davis and maybe Neil De St.Croix. I think we are all going to come off the bike together and it will come down to the run.”

Herring was not prepared to stick his neck out and say he would win if that scenario happened but a podium finish is on his mind.

“I want to get top three in that race, that's what I really want to do,” he said. “Every year coming up to it I have had very bad luck. Last year I was injured and the year before I had only just come back from England on holiday.

“I have never been very lucky with this race so hopefully this year I can put that bad luck behind me.”