National Biathlon Semi Final

TriPurbeck juniors were in action at the Bath University version of the National Schools Modern Biathlon Semi-finals yesterday, having qualified mostly via performances in the Portland competition last year. If you don’t know what a modern biathlon is, its basically like a triathlon except without the bike bit and with a very long transition between the swim and run, which generally involves food. Its nothing like ‘old fashioned’ biathlon which apparently involves skis and guns.

Anyway, 6 club juniors were involved and in the sub-tropical conditions of the olympic size pool, all 6 posted a pb in the swim, with Stephen probably the pick of the bunch, knocking a massive 10 seconds off his 100m time although Jack took 2 secs off his 50m time, also a huge margin. Jed and George were separated by a finger tip, Josh won his heat and Joe showed what extraordinary progress he has made with his swimming in less than a year – amazing.

With time literally flying by for the parents, some of whom had seen upwards of 35 seconds of competition in an action packed 4 hours so far, everyone headed out onto the track (yes yr6 parents I am using a little artistic licence). The wind was up and in the face of the athletes as they rounded the last bend – very tough conditions. George was up first, posting 1.42 pb for 500m and looking like he still had plenty in the tank. Jed flew to victory in the fastest of the yr 6 heats finishing in 1.29 to equal his pb. Joe ran very strongly and finished well to record a 1.39. Jack had the toughest run, getting buffeted around in the opening 100m before picking off most of his opponents to finish in 1.34. Finaly, Stephen and Josh ran in the same heat, both producing good runs with Josh around 3.30 for 1000m - more to come from these guys I think.

So all that was left was to tot up the results, which is harder than you think in biathlon. Basically it works like this, if you hit the standard time for your age and distance you get 1000 points. Every 0.2sec different from that either gains you or loses you 6 points or 3 points depending if you are swimming or running. Next you add half your age, the number of seconds you can hold your breath for and the weight of the person standing next to you measured in bags of sugar. Add it all up and you have the winner. In the case of the year 6s that was Jed and Georges’ Castle Court team mate Ben with Jed in 2nd – awesome. George finished in 19th in his age group and Jack in 24th in his. The Castle Court Team won and qualified for the national finals to defend their title, not withstanding the significant holiday commitments of the Skiltons and Robsons!