Although it was not the present on top of their ten-year-old son Tom's Christmas list, Tim and Heather Barber decided to buy him an archery bow.

Seven years later, Tom is an international archer for Great Britain, was a reserve for last year's Beijing Olympics and has been tipped to star in the next games in London.

"I can remember getting the bow and thinking 'that's good' but there was something else I got that I was enthusing over, probably a PC computer game," recalls Tom, 17, at his parents' home in Middle Road, Denton.

"I used to go out and have a go with it but I didn't instantly start doing it. It probably took a month going out with it, until I started really enjoying it."

Tom's first taste of archery had been a few months before that monumental Christmas, when he had taken part in an activities evening with Earsham Scout Group.

But it was when he started shooting arrows at home, along with his father who took the sport up at the same time, that his interest flourished.

Tom soon joined Taverham Archers, in Norwich, and although he claims he did not display an instant Olympian-in waiting aptitude for the sport, in his first year he became Norfolk U12s champion.

It was when he walked off with the U12s national title at Skelmersdale, near Liverpool, that he realised he may have a burgeoning talent for archery.

In 2005 he was called up to national squad's training camp for his age group but failed to qualify for the European Junior Championships and Grands Prix that season.

But this still proved an important year for him, as he met the new GB head coach, South Korean Peter Suk, for the first time.

By Tom's own admission, the meeting started a revolution in his game, not only technically but in his whole approach to the sport.

"The first time I met him I was taken aback by just how far from correct everything I did was," said the A-level student.

"He explained to me what needed to be done and if I wanted to achieve my goals what I needed to do.

"It just blew me away. I thought I was working relatively hard before that.

"I was shooting 120 arrows a day and I was one of the more hard-working juniors in our squad. Then he came up with the figure that I had to be shooting at least 300 arrows a day.