Monmouth sprinter Ryan Lee has been kept busy over the past four weeks.

On the weekend of 1st June, Ryan was due to compete for his club Cardiff AAC in Rugby, but on the Thursday had a request to compete in Geneva to represent Wales.

Conditions were poor with heavy rain just before Ryan's 400m heat in which he came second in a time of 48.48 seconds, a good strong performance.

Ryan rested in preparation for the English championships and European trials in Bedford on 15th and 16th June.

Ryan had entered the 400m and the heats were held on Saturday and the final Sunday.

Ryan was drawn in heat two of three, only the first two in each heat and the two fastest losers would qualify.

Ryan ran very well indeed and finished a strong second, this was probably the best 400m race Ryan has run so far – his time was 48.37 in very windy conditions.

Conditions for the final on Sunday were similar to the previous day and Ryan was drawn in lane seven.

The final was hard fought and Ryan pulled two places back on the home straight to finish fourth in a time of 48.55 seconds just narrowly missing out on a bronze medal position.

This event also incorporated the European Trials for U20 athletes and the time needed for the 400m was 47.80 which only achieved by the winner of the race.

This was a great weekend for Ryan, who is only on his first year at the U20 level so he has plenty of time left to continue his impressive improvement.

This event included some of the UK's best young athletes and one of the highlights of the weekend was watching Adam Gemilli winning the 100m and 200m in times of 10.02 seconds and 20.37 seconds respectively.

Last weekend, Swansea was the venue for the U17 and U20 Welsh championships and Ryan entered just the 400m to maximise his chances of doing as well as he could.

The 400m race was a straight final with seven athletes lined up, in yet again awful conditions for mid-summer, it was more like a cold October's day.

The last few meetings have really given Ryan some confidence as he flew the first 100m, pulling out a substantial lead over the rest of the athletes.

Ryan held his first place, only pulling further and further  away from the competion. He won the race in another very impressive time of 48.63 seconds.

The second placed athlete finished in a time of 50.92 so this showed Ryan's total dominance in the race.

Ryan is now the U20 Welsh 400m champion in his first year of competing at this event and his first year in the under 20 age group.

This coming weekend (29th and 30th June), Cardiff AAC will host the Welsh Senior Championships and Ryan has entered himself for this event.

Sixteen athletes have entered the 400m and on paper with Ryan's recent good form he is around third quickest in the field but there are a lot of athletes who are very close to his best of the season, which at present stands at 48.11 seconds.