From sporting celebrity to entertainer Southampton athlete Kriss Akabusi has run a varied career path as a soldier, world-class athlete and now an actor.

KRISS AKABUSI MBE made his showbusiness debut posing in just a thong - but it was to be the start of something big!

The athletics hero made the leap from sporting celebrity to entertainer when pantomime impresario Paul Elliot asked him to simply "stand there".

Newly retired from athletics, this vision was enough to draw a few extra red-blooded females into the Mayflower Theatre.

Kriss, who is now starring alongside Lily Savage and Sherrie Hewson in his seventh Mayflower panto, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, laughs as he recalls: "All I had to do was stand there in a thong. I immediately took to it and Paul Elliot recognised this boy could do more!"

Apart from becoming a regular panto star, Kriss has since gone into television, with presenting stints on The Big Breakfast and the BBC's Record Breakers.

His greatest individual sporting triumph was his Gold Medal in the 1990 European Championships, when he beat David Hemery's 22-year-old British record.

He began his international career in 1983 as a member of the 4x400 metre relay squad and is best remembered for helping Britain clinch the Gold and beat the Americans in the World Championship 4x400 metre relay in Tokyo in 1991.

Born in London of Nigerian parents and brought up in a children's home, he didn't have the greatest start in life.

He went from the home straight into the army at 16, swapping one institution for another. He admits it was "a security thing" which appealed because all meals, clothing, travel and sport were included. The discipline of such a regimented life must have helped him to be so strictly self-disciplined in his sporting career.

Today he says: "I miss the intensity of it, but it's a relief too."

He thrives on literally being under the spotlight and says: "Because of the confidence I have in my ability I'm fearless and so I enjoy myself. I guarantee an audience I won't short-change you. I will give it my best. I will do my best to move a panto along by being lively, energetic and eccentric."

But the buzz and excitement of being on stage is nothing compared to running a race.

"Doing pantomime, someone is always going to help you out - if you dry up someone will sort it out. If you are running, there is no second chance. If you pull your hamstring, get tonsillitis or fall asleep at the block, that's four years for nothing. You have to be 100 per cent focused to deliver.

"The pressure with panto is people have come to enjoy themselves and watch you perform and they want you to make them laugh.

"Running for me is easy, because I trained 365 days a year but it's harder to please a panto audience. In panto there are no gold medals and the audience comes in with preconceived ideas that athletes are no good."

Audiences this year will see Kriss playing the likeable Muddles.

The pantomime, also starring Lily Savage, runs at the Mayflower Theatre until January 21.