CALLUM Fitzpatrick is contemplating his first career change at the age of 12 after winning the latest round of the Reebok Cross Country Challenge.

Fitzpatrick has concentrated on the track ever since he joined Hyndburn AC at the age of eight and has already enjoyed considerable success.

In the 1999 season he reached the top 20 in the under-11s National Rankings in five events and he followed that this summer by winning the under-13s Lancashire Championships in both the 1500m and 800m, the latter in a Championship Record.

Described by club coach Gerry Lowe as "an ebullient character with a natural talent and a competitive instinct" he has flourished at Hyndburn.

Under the guidance of his father Shane, who is middle distance coach at the club, he has always treated cross country as winter training rather than an end in itself, but this year he has moved on to a new level.

Starting his season with a third place at Bolton in the Red Rose League, he travelled to Birmingham for the second round of the elite Reebok Cross Series.

At Senneleys Park he gained an excellent third place, and then a week later starred for the Hyndburn Team in the English National Cross Country Relay Championships.

Held at Mansfield, he produced the fastest time of the day to lift his team 16 places.

That result was his best cross country performance to date, but he was to top it at Margate where he won the third round of the Reebok Series by a single second after holding off the challenge of Ashford AC's Matthew Dawson.

Now he is one of three joint leaders of the series, which has prompted the Fitzpatricks to rethink their winter plans.

He may skip the next round in Edinburgh in favour of running in the Red Rose League at Burnley where there is some strong competition, but is set to run in Cardiff and in the final at Nottingham.

With the Nottingham race yielding double points, the race winner will probably take the series.