Young athletes from across the country, including Bath, have won titles at the British Schools Modern Biathlon Championships, held at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
The girls competed on Saturday and on Sunday it was the turn of boys to go into action in a swim in the Olympic Pool at London Aquatics Centre and a run at Olympic Park.
The event was organised by Pentathlon GB, the national governing body for the Olympic sport of modern pentathlon.
Highlights of the day included a third title in four years for Ben Samuel, a pupil at the Castle Preparatory School in Wimborne, Dorset, and back-to-back titles by Rowan Fuss from Scotts Park Primary School in Bromley.
The first winner of the day was Lawrence Martindale, from Monkton Preparatory School in Bath, who won the boys’ under-10s title with the second fastest run and then the second fastest swim.
He said: “The run gave me a boost for the swim, it really gave me confidence.”
Ben Samuel from Castle Court Preparatory School in Wimborne, Dorset, won the boys’ under-13 competition.
Ben, who won titles in 2011 and 2012, but finished second last year, took 30 seconds off his 1600m run personal best with a new benchmark of 5:14.32 to come third in the run.
“It was a challenge because we were running longer than usual. My swim has always been stronger than my run and I had to run a 30-second pb to win today. It certainly wasn’t a comfortable win.”
Henry Choong from Whitgift School in South Croydon took the under-17 title. He aims to follow in the footsteps of his brother Joe, a winner last year who now trains at the Pentathlon GB National Training Centre at the University of Bath.
“I went into the event ranked first so I was looking to do well today,” he said. “I’d like to thank my coaches at Whitgift School.”
Ben Pond, of Chatham and Clarendon Grammar School in Ramsgate, Kent, took the overall under-19 title and the swimming award with a stunning 200m freestyle swim time of 1:58.62.
Ben, who represented Great Britain at the GB Youth International in Solihull last month, said: “I’ve been competing at the Schools Biathlon since 2008 and getting progressively better.
“I couldn’t have gone much faster in the run today and I was pretty much on my pb in the swim, but there’s always something you can improve on.”
Team titles were won by: Monkton Preparatory School A, Bath (under-10s and under-12s), Busbridge Church of England Junior School, Godalming (under-11s), St Richard’s Catholic College in Bexhill-on-Sea (under-13s), Millfield School in Street (under-15s and under-19s) and Arnold KEQMS in Blackpool (under-16s).
Some 1600 young athletes took part in the event at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, with the girls competing on Saturday and the boys on Sunday.
Athletes aged nine to 18 tackled a 50m swim and an 800m run, while the older age groups swim 200m and run 1600m.
Some of the current crop of Britain’s modern pentathlon team have competed at the championships in the past before progressing to tackle all five disciplines of the modern pentathlon.
They include Jamie Cooke, Britain’s 2011 world junior champion, and Joe Evans, who won a bronze medal on his World Cup debut in the USA a year ago.