The Gunnedah athlete will take his place in the Northern Inland Academy of Sport (NIAS) Athletics squad and the speedster thought the squad environment would be incredibly beneficial.

“It’s just going to shoot me up even further, it’s a really good opportunity,” the 16-year-old said.

Clarke already trains five times a week on the track and in the gym and will now juggle NIAS sessions with his regular schedule.

The schedule is a busy one but Clarke believes it’s needed as he chases more success.

“I want to succeed more than I want to breathe. That’s just what I want,” Clarke said.

“I hope to see myself going really far [in athletics]. The amount of training I’m doing…I just really want to succeed.”

In particular, Clarke wants to improve his 400-metre time.

“I’’m up there with the best in NSW but I feel like I could go faster,” Clarke said.

“If I could maybe improve my times by two seconds, I could be winning gold at NSW All schools.

“It’d be pretty awesome to do that.

“[I’ll be doing] endurance stuff. Lots of long distance running.”

Clarke only started taking his athletics seriously 18 months ago.

Before that he said he competed “as a bit of fun.”

Since then, Clarke said he’s come a long way and has a tournament he’s aiming for in the near future.

“The NSW juniors, that’s coming up on February 9,” Clarke said.

“I’m going down to Sydney to compete but I’ll just be representing myself.”

Along with the 400-metre event, Clarke said he wanted to focus on improving his 200-metre sprint and long jump in 2018.