A TEENAGER has made rapid progress to show world-class potential, according to her Evesham Vale Triathletes coach.

Former district level swimmer Cara Lee, 18, has only been training for 13 weeks but finished second under 19s woman at the Warwickshire Triathlon sprint in Stratford and 29th female out of 116.

The Evesham nursery nurse, who is also studying at the University of Worcester, has particularly impressed on the bicycle to the point where she has been invited to track tests at Manchester Velodrome next month.

Richard Goode, a coach for more than 30 years, said: “Cara’s progress has been staggering. She hadn’t been on a bike since the age of 10.

“It was almost like she had to learn to balance again. But she’s done many miles around Vale Park and has turned out to be a phenomenal cyclist. I believe she has world-class potential in triathlon or track cycling.”

Lee, who competed for the Evesham, Pershore and Worcester clubs in the pool, did the fastest women’s swim split of five minutes 52 seconds at Stratford over 400 metres.

But her performance over the 23-kilometre cycle race was more surprising as she clocked 48.16 before doing the 5km run in 29.25 to total one hour 26 minutes 12 seconds overall including transitions.

Lee said: “It’s been really good so far and I’ve been enjoying it. I’m going for trials to see whether I go down the route of cycling or triathlon.

“I fell off my bike when I was young and hadn’t been on one for eight years. I just decided one morning I was going to do some triathlon training.”