Millfield Biathlon

TriPurbeck juniors were out in force at the Southwest Biathlon Championships yesterday – brilliant to see so many competing in their TriPurbeck tops and swim hats! For anyone still not up to speed with the rules of biathlon I refer you to the earlier post of the 23rd January. If that doesn’t clear it up the GBPentathlon website rules section is a good read……… Apparently, because this was a clubs competition, the run distance for some of the athletes are extended – still doesn’t seem to favour the runners though.

Anyway on to the results (from memory as they’re not up yet)… Annie, Max D and Thomas were first up in the youth E race – none of them had swum in a 50m pool before. Annie got pbs in the swim and the run again to finish 7th overall and Max ran brilliantly to win the run section. Thomas raced impressively - including diving off the blocks for the first time ever!  In the first heat of the boys youth D, Jack McD led out both the swim and run with Joe just behind him in both – recording a huge pb in the swim. In the second heat, George and Jed were up against it racing against older boys. George put in another good performance and finished the 1000m run very strongly. Jed recorded another pb in the swim and led the run all the way only to be pipped on the line – but still finished 5th overall and qualified for the nationals. In the youth C grirls race, Madeleine, making her TriPurbeck debut,  stayed with the leaders for the first 50m of the swim showing great potential if she can build her endurance. No need for that in the run though, where she ran brilliantly to finish 2nd in her heat. Finally, in the youth C boys race, Cosmo swam and ran very well against older boys posting 2 great times. Steve went out hard on the run only to be troubled by an injury but full credit for carrying on to the finish.  

Not quite sure yet what the position is with regard to team qualification for the finals but it looks like several of the juniors have got through. And finally, the search is on to find a banana that won’t fit Emma’s banana holder – first one wins a prize subject to official judication. 

One week to go to the Sika Trail Duathlon – its going to be fun!