Plymouth College pentathletes Oliver Smart, Annabel Denton and Edward Smart represented Great Britain in the 3rd World Biathle Tour, held under the hot Portuguese sun in Setubal’s Parc Urbano de Albarquel. Other countries competing in the continuous run-swim-run event included Russia, Italy, Belarus and Kazakhstan as well as the host team, Portugal.
Oliver Smart won the Youth D boys’ event with a dominant performance. Oliver has been training very hard since the GB Biathle in May. His aim was to lay down his mark by leading in front from the start which he did successfully to win by a gap of six seconds.
His brother, Edward Smart, competed in the Youth C boys’ competition. There were 27 competitors on the start line, which was the biggest group out of all the age categories. Edward was closely behind 2nd after the swim. Finding his shoe wouldn’t fit correctly in transition, he made the quick calm decision to take his shoe off and carry it with him to the finish line where he held off the other competitors to take third place.
Not to be outdone, Annabel Denton finished 8th in the Youth D girls. Annabel was 4th going into the swim, however there was a battle to get around the buoy with the front pack so closely bunched together and less than two seconds separated 5th and 8th at the finish line.
Pentathlon Coach, Josh Lake, said “Congratulations to these three young athletes! It has been a fantastic experience seeing each of them develop over the year and represent their country overseas so successfully. I look forward to working with them again next year to build on what they’ve achieved already.”