The young gymnast is one of ten finalists for the grant that is determined by a public vote.

His mother Leonie said she hoped Wimmera residents would get behind him.

“The money would fund two international competitions and a year of coaching,” she said.

“We’re very excited about it all.

“There was a long process to apply and they received more than 600 applications from all over Australia.”

The Sports Boost is aimed at junior athletes aged 12-18 and the nine runners-up all received $2000.

Hudson started his gymnastics journey in Natimuk and by the age of 12 he was regularly travelling to Melbourne to train.

At the age of 14 he relocated to Melbourne on a full-time basis. He won successive under-15 and under-16 Australian championships in 2015 and 2016.

He took another big step at the start of this year when he moved to be part of the setup at the Gymnastics Queensland High Performance Centre in Brisbane.

Leonie said Hudson had a busy training schedule that he also had to juggle with completing year 11 at Brisbane Boys College.

“It take a lot of discipline,” she said.

“But he is a very well organised boy who has some big goals that he is working towards.”

This year is the final time Hudson will compete in under-age competitions before moving onto senior international competitions.

“It can take a few years for young juniors to adapt to competition at the senior level,” Leonie said.

You can show vote for Hudson online by clicking here.