Rory (left) and Toby Meek will take part in the World BMX Championship in Belgium later this month.At the Hong Kong Jockey Club International BMX Park in Kwai Chung, two bikers chase each other around the track. Speeding around the course, they suddenly soar into the air before landing smoothly to slide around the corner and then launch themselves off the next series of hilly obstacles.
It's not until they stop and pull off their helmets that you see how young they really are. Watching them on their bikes, you'd never guess that Toby and Rory Meek are only 10 and eight years old.
The brothers, both students at German-Swiss International School, have dominated the BMX scene both in Hong Kong and internationally, riding with a maturity that has placed them at the top of their age groups for the past few years.
The boys are permanent residents of Hong Kong but represent both New Zealand and Hong Kong when competing. Both boys have been Hong Kong BMX champions for the past four years. Toby is currently ranked world number 33 for his age group. Rory, on the other hand, ranked third in the world for seven-year-olds at the UCI BMX World Championship in the Netherlands last year.
While the pressure of competing in a high-adrenalin sport like BMX might be too much for some, the two boys feel it is in their blood. They just love it. "Our dad taught us to ride a bike," Rory says, "and that was it, really."
Toby remembers their first visit to the track. "When we first got here, we were [just] rolling around," he recalls. "And then we decided we liked it, so we started trying jumps." And the championship titles soon followed.
To win a title, the boys have to go through several rounds of competition. It starts with the qualification motos, then moves up to "eights", quarter-finals, semi-finals, and then the final round. "If you come first, you get one point," explains Toby. "Second is two points, third is three points, and so on. And eight's like, the worst." If you want to win, he says, you need to stay in the top four for all rounds. "You crash or anything, and you're out."
And as with any extreme sport, accidents happen. "I've got injured tonnes," Toby admits. Even practice can be dangerous; one wrong move or a botched landing can lead to disaster for the riders. To protect themselves, the boys wear a lot of gear that includes body armour; jackets; shoulder, arm and knee pads; back and stomach protectors; gloves; and special shoes. "And a helmet!" adds Rory.
Watching them zoom around the track, the brothers make the sport look easy. But they say most people don't realise just how hard it is - or how much work it takes. To be the best, they have to put in hours of training on the track.
Now they are heading to Belgium to compete in the UCI BMX World Championships 2015, to be held from July 21-25. Toby will be racing with the 11-year-olds this year, while Rory will face eight-year-olds. "I'm gonna get first," Rory says confidently.
But whatever the outcome, both boys say they simply love the sport. "I love the big jumps," says Toby, as Rory nods in agreement. "It just feels so cool, like you're floating in mid-air. And I love that feeling when you're on the gate in a big competition. It just feels so cool."