Olivia Green and Oliver Murray claimed victory at the first Pentathlon GB National Youth Ranking Competition of 2017 yesterday [Sat 14th January]. In the Girls’ event, Green led home Zoe Davison and Zoe Gowers whilst in the boys’ event, Murray edged out George Budden with Toby Price finishing 3rd after a thrilling laser-run.
An early start at The University of Bath saw the day get underway with the girls’ fencing. An impressive performance from North Kent MPC’s Laura Sheffield saw her top the discipline standings with 27 victories and just 3 defeats. Wycliffe College’s Zoe Davison finished 2nd in the opening discipline with 25 victories and 5 defeats, 3 victories ahead of Plymouth College’s Georgina Mitchell in 3rd.
In the 200m swim, Katie Hughes recorded the quickest time of the competition in 2:16.14, just over a second clear of Yorkshire Pentathlon’s Genna Suddes (2:17.57) with Olivia Green a further 0.41 seconds back in 3rd.
Davison’s 2:18.20 moved her to the top of the overall standings after 2 disciplines, 27 points clear of Green in 2nd. With points converted to seconds, it meant Davison started the combined laser-run with a 27 second lead over Green. Behind Green, things were much closer with Mitchell 4 seconds behind in 3rd and Leweston Pentathlon Academy duo Zoe Gowers and Libby Tolley both a further 5 seconds back.
In the laser-run, it was Green who produced the standout performance with her time of 13:56.24 comfortably the quickest of the afternoon and enough to see her claim victory ahead of Davison. Gowers overturned her 5 second deficit to Mitchell to finish 3rd with the Plymouth College athlete coming home in 4th.
Emma Whitaker produced the 2nd quickest combined laser-run of the day to finish 5th with Millfield School’s Abby Lebus and Leweston Pentathlon Academy’s Libby Tolley finishing 6th and 7th respectively after consistent performances throughout the day at the University of Bath. North Kent MPC’s Gabriella Eltham finished 8th ahead of Kamie Lowe, another athlete to produce an impressive laser-run, whilst Katie Hughes rounded out the top 10 following her quickest swim of the competition.
The boys also started their day in the fencing salle where Hartpury College’s Murray and Yorkshire Pentathlon’s Harby finished joint top with 16 victories and 4 defeats apiece. Behind them, Alex Coveney who also currently trains and studies at Hartpury College, a Pentathlon GB Academy, and North Kent MPC’s Richard Carr both finished 3rd with 14 victories.
In the pool, it was Millfield School’s Nick Laws who set the standard with a 2:03.13 swim, just 2 hundredths of a second quicker than William Swain with George Budden 3rd quickest following a 2:08.42. Harby’s 2:10.33, the 4th quickest swim of the competition, gave him a 14 second lead over Murray heading into the combined laser-run with Carr just 7 seconds further back in 3rd. Although there was a 28 second gap behind the North Kent athlete, just 8 seconds covered positions 4th-8th, which led to a fascinating final discipline.
The start of the combined laser-run saw Murray seeking to close down Harby at the front of the field with everyone else battling and exchanging positions behind them. The 17 year-old, younger brother of 2012 Olympic silver medallist Samantha, overhauled the Yorkshire athlete but then had to hold off a last lap challenge from the fast finishing George Budden who broke free of the chasing pack.
A fantastic laser-run from Yorkshire Pentathlon’s Toby Price saw him finished 3rd having started the final discipline in 11th with Leweston Pentathlon Academy’s George Case recording the quickest laser-run of the day to go finish 4th despite starting in the first of the two laser-run heats.
Harby finished 5th ahead of Yorkshire Pentathlon teammate Josh Hood with Swain and Laws 7th and 8th respectively. Plymouth College’s Tomas Maksimovic came home 9th with West Midlands MPC’s Guy Anderson rounding out the top 10.
Today (Sunday 15th January) sees the first Senior and Junior ranking competition of the year taking place with all four of Team GB’s 2016 modern pentathletes – Kate French, Samantha Murray, Joe Choong and Jamie Cooke – in action.
The second National Youth Ranking Competition of the year takes place next month, also at the University of Bath.
Report courtesy of Pentathlon GB
