Record breaking GB Youth International in Solihull

On a fine weekend at the Tudor Grange Leisure Centre, Solihull, 87 athletes from twelve nations lined up to take part in the GB Youth International, the largest number of participants in the competition’s history. There was a great atmosphere amongst the competitors, and plenty of enthusiastic spectators, parents and coaches supporting the teams with some excellent performances from the athletes who all made the most of the opportunity to test their skills against new opponents. After an early start in the swimming pool the Youth A girls standings saw Aroa Freije (ESP) in first position with a 2 mins 11.82 secs swim followed by Naomi Craig (GBR) in 2nd 2 mins 13.59 secs and Alexandra Boros (HUN) in 3rd 2mins 13.99 secs. Youth A Boys saw two blistering performances in the pool from Henry Choong (GBR) 1 min 54.41 secs and Ben Pond (GBR) 1 min 55.70 secs with Angelos Vasileiou (GRE) in 3rd 2 min 00.70 secs.This looks to be a new Youth record in a 25m pool for Henry Choong with the current record of 1 min 54.63 secs set in 2008 by Remigiusz Golis of Poland but we await confirmation of the record from UIPM. In the Youth A Girl’s fencing Sarolta Simon (HUN) 282 points topped the leader board, with Georgia Pipes (GBR) and Charlotte Summers (GBR) 250 points joint 2nd and Catherine Bishop (GBR) 4th 242 points. Youth A Boy’s fencing saw Tamas Loi (HUN) 257 points in 1st, Joshua Miller (GBR) and Sherif Nazeir (EGY) in joint second with 250 points and Joan Gispert (ESP) in 4th 243 points. The Youth B Boys and Girls took to the pool where the GBR athletes excelled.  Hannah Featherstone (GBR) clocked 2 mins 04.20 secs in 1st place, Paris Allen (GBR) 2 mins 12.70 secs in 2nd and Georgia Hannam (GBR) 2 mins 16.64 secs in 3rd.  Hannah Featherstone’s time may be another record set, faster than the Junior record of 2 mins 04.98 secs set by Elodie Clouvel in 2010, and faster than any of the Senior times recorded in the World Cup 1 Final in February. In the Youth B Boys, Myles Pillage (GBR) came in first 1 min 54.87 secs, close to the Youth record, Nicholas Laws (GBR) 2 mins 04.84 secs in 2nd and Finn Slattery (GBR) 2 mins 06.87 secs in 3rd. Moving to the combined with the range outdoor and great running conditions in both the girl’s and boy’s competition the start times achieved from the swimming results meant that both Myles Pillage and Hannah Featherstone had unassailable leads and dominated their events. Youth B Boys results, 1st Myles Pillage (GBR) 48 points ahead of 2nd placed Jose Saraiva (POR) and in 3rd Kelton Aldridge (GBR) who had moved up from 8th position in the swimming. Youth B Girl's results, 1st Hannah Featherstone (GBR), 2nd Paris Allen (GBR) and in 3rd Georgia Hannam (GBR) replicated the finishing positions in the swim. Youth A Boy's results saw a popular win for Max Esposito (AUS) who moved up several places to take the win, 2nd Gergely Regos (HUN) 3rd Soma Tomaschof (HUN) The Youth A Girl’s results saw a clean sweep for Hungary.  In 1st place Alexandra Boros, 2nd Sarolta Simon and 3rd Anna Zs Toth. GBR athlete Georgia Pipes was in 4th and Naomi Craig in 5th. Stuart Mason, Pentathlon GB World Class Pathway Manager said ‘It started off quite early with the swim, the Youth B Boys and Girls providing some of the best swim times in the world this year, summing up the day, it’s great for athletes to have the opportunity to put their training into good use against international athletes.  It sets the GB team up for the summer and gives us a benchmark to work towards for the summer internationals.  For GB athletes this is now the revised first ranking competition of the year as the scheduled competition had to be cancelled due to the weather, the next one will be at the end of March and after that selections will be made for the Sant Boi International in Barcelona.’ Jan Bartu, Pentathlon GB National Performance Director who had been involved throughout the competition said ‘I’ve enjoyed the day, watching young enthusiastic athletes having a good day in Pentathlon which is essential to keep them involved.  There have been a few stand out performances of the day but in general it’s just great to see the athletes enjoying themselves which is the most important thing.’ Well done to all the athletes who took part and a big thank you to all the volunteers whose dedication made it possible to run the event. A full round up of the results from the day can be found on the Pentathlon GB website Pictures from the day are on the Pentathlon GB Facebook page