A PROFESSIONAL career now beckons for Warrington's Young Sports Personality of the Year Kris Lee.

He has been crowned British National Downhill Mountain Biking Champion.

His success has come on the back of helping the British team to sixth place

out of a field of 80 teams in the European Junior Championships in the Czech Republic.

The 17-year-old also has a strong lead in the National Points Series and is expected to win the series when the final race takes place in Shropshire on August 29.

Kris has also been picked to ride for the Great Britain team in the World Junior Championships set to take place in the magnificent surroundings of Quebec, Canada, next month.

Kris said: "It's all been going pretty well recently. Winning the British Championships was a big plus."

The teenager is booming in a rapidly growing sport which involves time racing down steep gradients as well as through forests and rough terrain.

Kris said: "You can pick up speeds of up 50 of 60mph at miles but at other parts of a course you can be going at walking pace while you negotiate a tricky bit."

The World Championships will be a big test.

He said: "Apparently there are miles and miles of unspoilt countryside once you get out of the city and there are mountains there so it's quite spectacular.

"It's going to be a massive course that lasts about eight minutes and we'll be picking up speeds of 60mph so it'll be a test."

Just to prove he's still human, Kris had a bad accident at Malvern after winning the British title and was rushed to hospital with a suspected ruptured spleen.

He said: "There was a bridge part way down the course and someone had covered it in gloss paint. I was one of the first down and it had just been raining so my bike came out from under me. I badly bruised my ribs and was a bit concussed so that certainly brought me back to earth!"

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.