P79 Swimmers at British Modern Biathlon Championships

The British Modern Biathlon Championships were held at Tudor Grange Leisure Centre, Blossomfield Road, Solihull on 26th & 27th November 2016.

Competing in this event is a great opportunity to gain valuable competition experience and for school age athletes to improve run and swim times for the British Schools' Modern Biathlon Championships rankings list.  Pioneer 79 Swimming Club had three of its swimmers taking part, in the Under 13 Age Group we had Ella Williams and Katherine Waters, whilst in the Under 16 Age Group we had Leah Williams.  For the Under 13 Age Group, the distances the girls were required to complete were 100m Swim/1600m Run, whilst in the Under 16 Age Group, participants were expected to complete 200m Swim/1600m Run.

Katherine, Leah and Ella

Ella (12), who was competing for Holy Cross Catholic High School, finished her swim in a time of 1:09.80, which placed her 16th overall going into her run, gaining 1144 points.  Her run of 6:57.80 gained her another 886 points and finished 52nd overall.  With the points then added together for the swim and run, Ella's points total of 2030 placed her 45th overall.

Katherine (12) was competing for Woodhey High School.  Her swim time of 1:10.98 gained her 1124 points, which placed her in 21st position going into the run.  After a strong run of 6:27.88 she claimed 1037 points, finishing 43rd in the run.  Again, once the points were accumulated together, Katherine found herself finishing 31st with 2161 points.

Leah (15) was also competing for Holy Cross Catholic High School.  Her 200m swim time of 2:14.43 placed her in an impressive 4th place with 1156 points going into her run.  An equally impressive run of 5:46.72 gained her 10th position and another 1142 points.  Once the points were added together, Leah had finished 2298 points which placed her 3rd overall, just 6 points behind her nearest rival, Zoe Brickley from the West Midlands who took the silver medal.  The winner, Daisy Anderson from the South East won the event with 2380 points.

Leah in 3rd position on the podium

It is exciting to report on and see so many of our swimmers excelling in different sports throughout the country at such high levels, may we take this opportunity to congratulate you all and wish you the very best for future events.