A WORCESTERSHIRE soldier is celebrating after he had great success in an army skiing championship.

Sapper Daniel Johnson won a silver medal in the junior class of the Alpine Combination and finished in 36th place overall at the Exercise Spartan Hike competition.

The 19-year-old of Kinnersley, near Severn Stoke, was up against another 144 soldiers who took part in Slalom, Grand Slalom, Super-G, and Downhill races at the ski resort of Serre Chevalier, southern France.

The soldier who serves with 59 Independent Commando Squadron, attached to the Royal Engineers, said he started skiing while he was still at Hanley Castle High School, near Malvern, and had enjoyed recent success at the Royal Engineers Championships winning gold as the best junior.

"I think that downhill skiing is an awesome sport - I just love the speed of it," he said "You get a bit nervous standing in the starting gate. You know that whatever happens you have got to get down as fast as you can, you have just got to go for it."

Sapper Johnson finished consistently in the top third of most of the races during the 10-day competition at the end of last month and completed the heart-stopping Downhill race, which involved skiing at speed down a course of nearly 2,000 metres with a 502 metre drop, in just one minute 31.29 seconds.

Having passed the Commando course and winning the coveted Green Beret Sapper Johnson is now busy preparing for an operational tour in Afghanistan.

"I have got a busy year ahead," he said. "I am going on a search course in preparation for deployment to Afghanistan later in the year, but I want to continue with my skiing and try to make the Army team.

"Being in the Army is awesome, it was the best decision that I ever made, It's what I wanted to do when I left school, my parents are proud of me."