Biathlon
Having a number of pupils who attend local swimming clubs, and having an excellent tradition in Cross Country competitons, it seemed the sensible thing to join the two up in a 'biathlon' competition. Pupils from the school annually take part in the Southern Region schools biathlon competition, with many pupils doing extremely well. Over the past few years we have had number of pupils reach the national final. If you wish to find out more about biathlon, see Mr Wylie.
Westgate’s Biathletes make National Semi-Finals
A Team of 12 represented The Westgate School at the Southern Biathlon Championships in Portsmouth on Sunday. There were some new faces on the team, along with some pupils who have done Biathlon on a number of occasions.
The biathlon is made up of a run and a swim and up to 9 of the 12 athletes have made it through to the National Semi-Finals to be held in Bath.
Isabella Talbot finished 6th overall after posting the 3rd fastest swim of the day and lead the Year 9 girls team of herself, Libby Dowson and Emily Lewis to become the Southern Region Champions. Matt Elliott, Ross Humphrys and Callum Bruce finished 2nd team. They are waiting for the results of the final qualifying competition to see if they are through to the semi-finals.
Freya Rhodes in year 8 finished 6th overall and qualified, as did Georgie Elliott (10RWY) who was 2nd to the World Junior Biathlon Champion!
Head of PE, Mr Wylie also entered the teacher’s event – and finished 2nd with the fastest swim time and qualified for the semi-final as well!
We wish the entire team luck for the Semi –Finals in January.
More Biathlon Success!
Sunday saw 5 pupils competing at the Schools Biathlon Semi-final in Bath. Having qualified from our county competition in November, there were places up for grabs to get through to the National Final to come later on this year. Previous county champion Oli Lewis finished 10th, current county champion Daniel Woodland fninished14th and George Barnes 50th. In the yr 7 girls event, Carys Ladd finished 31st, in Yr 8 Oliver Winwood-Bratchell finished 46th and in the yr 9 boys, last year’s national finalist Ross Humphries finished 10th.