Olympian Michael Harvey is ready “to hit the year hard” when he makes his first appearance of 2015 at this weekend’s Bosnia Open in Sarajevo.

By his own admission, the 2012 European champion and 2011 World silver medallist has endured a disappointing 12 months.

And the 25-year-old Mancunian has his work cut out to be a Rio 2016 contender by the end of this year.

But Harvey has pledged to give it his best shot to haul himself up the rankings, starting with a first ever appearance at the Bosnia tournament.

“I am under no illusions how tough it is going to be,” agreed Harvey, the oldest member of the seven strong GB squad.

“However, I am up for the challenge. If, at the end of the year, it’s not good enough then at least I will know I couldn’t have given anymore.

“Last year was probably my worst since I came into the GB Academy,” admitted Harvey, only 18 when he fought alongside eventual bronze medallist, Sarah Stevenson and Aaron Cook at the 2008 Beijing Games.

“Everything just snowballed and I still had things on my mind, worrying about what had gone wrong in the previous tournament, when I was at a new event.

“Hopefully, now I am back on track and clear in my mind what I need to do.

“I have worked hard in training and now is the time to put it into practice.”

Harvey and his youthful team mates have already had the bar set by their Manchester trained team mates. Tony Stephenson won gold at the start of year Greek Open in Harvey’s -68kg category while there were five medal winners at last weekend’s US Open including titles for Damon Sansum and Lutalo Muhammad.

“The team has done really well and I just hope I can show the same kind of form,” added Harvey, bronze medallist at the Luxor and Fujairah Opens.

SCHEDULE

Saturday, January 31

Men:

-54kg: Max Cater (Southampton), Archie Waldock (Southampton)

-87kg: Levi Goodridge (Farnborough)

Sunday, February 1

Men:

-68kg: Michael Harvey (Manchester)
-80kg: Tom Smith (Poplar)

Women:

-49kg: Georgia Barnes (Southampton)

-53kg: Charlie Maddock (Stoke on Trent)