St Swithun’s students make GB Squad for biathle and triathle events

Two students from St Swithun’s School have qualified to represent Great Britain in pentathlon events. Twelve-year-old Isabelle Law has been selected to represent Great Britain in the biathle at the European Championships this summer and Theya Dare Bryan, a ten-year-old pupil from St Swithun’s Junior School, will compete in the forthcoming Madeira International Biathle.

Isabelle was selected following her performance at the GB Biathle Race 2 European Championship qualifying event in Cheltenham in April. Despite having only recently moved up into the U15 category and being one of the youngest competitors in the event, Isabelle put in a stunning performance to finish in 6th place overall with a time of 07.48.7, which was good enough to qualify for a place in the GB squad. Theya qualified by finishing an excellent 8th with a time of 04.44.00 in the U11 category at the same event.

Biathle is a sub-sport of modern pentathlon invented to create opportunities to train for the running and swimming parts of pentathlon in real race conditions, but has become a popular sport in its own right. The event involves swimming and running in a continuous run/swim/run format, with the U15 category running 800m, followed by a 100m swim, and another 800m run, and the U11 category running 400m before a 50m swim and another 400m run.

In addition to her biathle achievements, Isabelle also took part in the Pentathlon GB South West Triathle Championships held at Leweston School in Sherbourne, and finished 7th. This performance earned her qualification to represent Great Britain in the European Triathle Championships this summer. Similar to biathle, the triathle is a continuous run/swim event but also incorporates a laser pistol shoot into the competition.

Director of sport at St Swithun’s Liz Phillips said: ‘Isabelle and Theya have worked incredibly hard this year on both their running and swimming in training sessions at school and at their clubs. It is great to see the success they are having as a result.’

The Madeira International Biathle will be held on 10 June 2018, and the Biathle and Triathle European Championships will be held in Wieden, Germany on 27 & 28 July 2018.