Monmouth sprinter Ryan Lee officially became a member of Cardiff Athletics Club as from 1st May.

Ryan had been a member of Cwmbran Harriers for the past three years but felt that it was time to move on and develop his career.

This meant that if selected for his new club Cardiff, Ryan would be able to compete in the British Athletic League which holds events throughout the season all over the UK.

Due to Ryan's recent good form in the 400m he was selected to run in that event, a race which on paper was the hardest as it had the quickest athletes.

This was Ryan's first meeting with Cardiff and he did not want to let his new team mates down.

Ryan's race was the third and final 400m race and the conditions, as for the previous two, were very windy and cold.

On the gun Ryan got off to a really good start and actually finished the race third after being in sixth position with 50m to go, making three places up on the last 5m.

Ryan's aim was to run a sub 49 second as the previous weekend he ran a 49.16 at Loughborough, a new personal best.

Everyone knew that the time was very quick but waiting for conformation from the officials seemed an eternity.

When Ryan's time was eventually announced it had been worth the wait as he achieved an amazing time of 48.30 seconds. It was only a couple of months ago Ryan was running mid 49 seconds.

This is a very high standard of competition as Cardiff compete with teams from Basingstoke, Liverpool, Glasgow, Kent AC, Southend AC, Thames Valley Harriers and Windsor, Slough, Eton and Hounslow.

Next weekend Ryan has also been selected to compete at Loughborough in a Welsh Athletics International fixture against Loughborough students, Scotland, England, GB students & GB Juniors.

Ryan will run in the 4x400m relay for Wales, this is a great honour as the team consists of some very talented and experienced athletes with the likes of Christian Malcom, Gareth Warburton, Brett Morse, Rhys Williams.

Ryan could not of hoped for a better start for his new club.

The result sends Ryan up the UK u20 men's 400m rankings from number 14 to number six, which is far above anyone's expectations at this stage in his career.

In Wales he is still ranked number two but has closed the gap to 2/10ths of a second and he can not wait to race the Welsh number one, who is based in Deeside.