King's Lynn Stars have stepped up their preparations for the 2019 season – and club bosses reckon it's so far, so good.

The Stars started their winter training programme at the beginning of December and have now completed their mid-winter physical performance tests.

Their comparable fitness measurements have come in 9pc above last year's levels, with Team GB coaches Chris Neville and Paul Suggitt putting the new side through their paces at Jordan Fitness in the town.

The winter training programmes focus on baseline fitness tests designed to assess the physical condition in body composites, hydration, aerobic performance, sight quality combined with peripheral vision and reaction times.

New for 2019 is the 'sight bar' test, designed to establish which is the dominant eye of each rider to give critical understanding of how to maximise their starts on the bike.

Reaction times currently vary between 0.007 to 0.023 of a second with more pre-season training work to be done on the non-dominant eye.

It's nonetheless been a pleasing start to preparations – and club bosses are hopeful they are on the right track to go one better than last year's SGB Premiership Grand Final defeat.

King's Lynn promoter Keith Chapman said: 'We had a fantastic season in 2018 and we were proud to collect two silver medals, but our full commitment to these winter training camps are an early indicator of just how much we want those gold medals this season.'

Stars co-promoter Robin Brundle commented: 'We know that we can raise our fitness game beyond last year's programme and we are already delighted with the incredibly positive mindset of the 2019 team.

'The riders have instantly taken on board all of the learning from the 2018 programmes and have also accepted the new elements for 2019.

'The riders are arriving hydrated, five of the riders are already at the required weight target and six of the riders are already at their performance heart rate target too.

'There is one additional specialist exercise programme that we will share with our supporters at the end of the training programme.

'We have two more, two-day, training camps before the season starts and we expect all of our team to be on target.

'The reaction test bike will be made available to the fans during race nights at Adrian Flux Arena, so that you can come along and test your skills against the times set by the riders.'

Dale Allitt, co-promoter and team manager, added: 'The whole team understands that we have unfinished business from 2018 and we are all focused on gold in 2019.

'When you analyse the demands placed on the speedway riders body, they are pretty eye-watering and you cannot fail to be impressed by the teams work ethic.'