Strong finish as Cattanach swipes fifth
Two Bath Pentathlon Club members took part in a full modern pentathlon last weekend. The ride took place on Saturday at the Ivy Lodge Equestrian Centre in Melksham and saw under-17 Louise Cattanach, in one of her first pentathlons, knock down just one pole and come away with 293 points, which put her in joint first place overnight. At the other end of the scale, U19 Kara Hughes may have been competing in her last event as she goes off to university in September. She jumped higher at 1m and knocked two poles to give her 286 points at the end of the day. On the Sunday, the 200m swim was up first, probably both athletes’ weakest discipline, and they both moved back a couple of places. The fencing salle saw positions change again as Cattanach came away with 13 victories and as many defeats to place her eighth ahead of the laser-run. Hughes also produced some fine hits and was in ninth place ahead of the run. Shooting has always been where Cattanach’s strength lies and thiswas no exception as she moved up the field throughout, and a sprint finish saw to it that she held on to a fine fifth. Hughes, who has had to put training aside to concentrate on her A Levels, ran out of steam at the end, but still managed to come a creditable tenth. She picked up a team gold medal with her Hartpury College team. They had also been joined by their Bath Pentathlon team-mates, who just took part in the tetrathlon event. U13 Harvey Parker, U17 Callum Withers and Matthew and Luke Bradley and U19 Ellie Gussey all put on a fine display and did the club proud.