European trip ends in Wilson bronze
Bath Pentathlon Club member Sarah Wilson spent a week in the Lithuanian city of Kaunas with the Pentathlon GB under19 team for the European tetrathlon championships.
The TASS athlete easily qualified for the final with a fine sixth place in her heat with a 2mins 37secs swim.
A share of 11 victories and 11 defeats in the fencing hall and a speedy combined run and shoot saw her comfortably through.
After a day of rest, she was back at it for the final, in temperatures of 31 degrees.
She swam a slightly improved 200m time of 2:35.80. A tough fencing session saw her come away with just 13 victories to 22 defeats, putting her in 33rd place prior to the laser-run.
A fabulous run-shoot saw Wilson make great progress through the field and with the second quickest combined time of the day to cross the line in 12th place.
On Saturday she partnered with Hartpury college student Josh Hood for the mixed relays. Once again the swim was the weakest discipline, leaving them towards the end of the pack.
A vastly improved fence saw Wilson come away with nine victories to five defeats and Hood with and 8-6 record. This left them eighth place going into the laser-run.
Wilson put in another sterling performance for her two shoots and 800m runs, bringing them up to third at the change over.
Then it was just up to Hood to keep the other teams at bay, which he did brilliantly to claim the bronze medal for the duo.
Meanwhile, Pentathlon GBS British Laser Run Championships and world champs qualifier were held in Solihull on Sunday.
This standalone, fast-paced event is usually the exciting finale to a full modern pentathlon and is a great introduction to the sport.
Bath Pentathlon Club had five members taking part, all of whom produced impressive results to go through and qualify for the World Championships in Hungary in September.
In the U11 boys, Freddie Howchin, had to shoot from 3m and do two 400m runs. He put in a sterling performance to take the silver medal, just three seconds behind the winner.
For the U15 girls, Lottie Silverton, who is gaining confidence with every competition she enters, also took the silver medal with longer distances of 5m shoots and four 400m runs.
In the highly contested U17 girls category it was 10m shoots followed by 4x400m stretches; Louise Cattanach came a strong sixth place.
There was only 17 seconds between her and the first-placed girl, with the top ten all coming within a minute of each other.
Finally, in the U19 boys, the distance moved up to the full 10m shoots and a quartet of 800m runs.
Matthew Cattanach grabbed a brilliant bronze with clubmate, Sam Blacker close behind in fourth.