Six swimmers from Thanet Swim Club participated in the British National Modern Biathlon Championships held at Wyndley Leisure Centre in Sutton Coldfield on Sunday 13th May 2012.
The Modern Biathlon comprises of swim followed by a run; the distance is determined by age category of the competitor. Points are awarded for each discipline and final positions are decided by the total number of points achieved after both disciplines.
In older age group Ben Pond representing Chatham and ClarendonGrammar Schoolwon the 200m swim recording a time under 2 minutes in 1.59.86 which gave him a bit of a buffer for the run. However, Ben produced a very composed and controlled 1500m run and smashed his personal best in a time of 4.37.72 to finish 4th in the run. Ben was deservedly crowned British National Modern Biathlon Champion.
In the age category below, Thanet Swim Club had Harry Bradford, Jamie O’Connor and Alexander Wilmshurst all competing as individuals but also as a Team representing Dane Court Grammar School.
After the 100m swim Alexander was in first place with a time of 56.84, Jamie in 2nd with 57.15 and Harry 4th breaking the one minute barrier in 59.82. But whilst it was expected that all three boys would do well in the swim the 1500m run was going to be a different story because they were now competing against dedicated runners!
The boys needn’t have worried because Alex finished 3rd in the run in a time of 4.39.88 and both Harry and Jamie comfortably beat their personal bests in 5.12 and 5.21 respectively.
So now Thanet Swim Club had double individual champions with Alex stepping up onto the podium as British National Modern Biathlon Champion with Jamie 9th and Harry 10th. Also, theDane Court Team were overall Team Champion beating Dorset Pentathletes into second and Whitgift School into third!
Three British National Champions from the same swimming squad!
In the girl’s event Lauren Joy from Senior Squad and Beth Williams from Junior Squad were also competing.
Lauren had a flying start in the 200m swim finishing 2nd but had to dig deep in the 1500m run setting a new personal best in under 6 minutes. Lauren finished 18th overall.
Beth had also qualified for these championships through Regional qualifiers but after the run was in 18th place. However, after a strong 50m swim catapulted up the table to 8th overall just missing out on a medal.
Thanet Swim Club 
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