WILL GEAREY MAKES IT HAT-TRICK OF BRITISH TITLES!
Year 9 student, Will Gearey, made it a hat-trick of national titles at the weekend, winning the under 14 biathlon championship at the British Modern Biathlon Championships at Tudor Grange in Solihull at the weekend.
Will, who also swims for Worcester, holds a phenomenal record in the biathlon, having won his first British title in 2014 and successfully defending it in 2015.
The modern biathlon comprises a separate timed swim (100m) and run (1600m), with points allocated for each individual event. The British Championships attract competitors from all over the UK, with many of the top age group youngsters representing specialist triathlon clubs or famous schools of sporting excellence such as Whitgift, Millfield and Plymouth College.
Will had qualified for this year’s national final as number one seed, having won the West Midlands Biathlon Championship with a strong performance in October.
In the 100m freestyle, he was seeded one and hoping to set the fastest time of the day to give himself a good lead at the halfway point.
Drawn in the final and fastest heat Will found himself in a lane between Harrison Barber from Biddulph High School (Staffordshire) and Luke Fowle from Sir Joseph Williamson’s Mathematical School (Kent).
The swim went with the seeding, and Will won in a very quick time of 56.10 seconds, earning 1,360 points, almost 1.9 seconds and 36 points ahead of Harrison Barber and 84 points ahead of Luke Fowle, his main rival.
At the halfway point, although Will held the lead, he knew the run specialists, who included the national cross country champion, would be aiming to close the gap with the 1,600m run and that it would be a challenging affair for him, particularly as the cold weather and crosswind were making conditions more difficult.
Having made the sensible decision to run his own race, Will knew that he just had to restrict the time difference between Luke Fowle and himself to 25 seconds in order to retain his title. With 400m to go, Gearey was finding the going very tough but continued to fight showing tremendous grit and determination. Harley Norman from Whitgift School crossed the line in first place in a staggering time of 4.42.98 (1436 points), whilst Luke Fowle finished fourth in 5.00.84 (1346 points). Will managed to dig deep for one final sprint down the home straight to cross the line in 5.13.40 (1283 points).
The final leaderboard saw Will Gearey crowned national biathlon champion with a total of 2,643 points just 21 ahead of Luke Fowle who claimed silver with 2,622, and Liam Openshaw, from Poole Grammar School, claimed third on 2,584 points.
Dr Evans, commented: “We are all very proud of Will’s achievements and his success is just reward for all the hours spent training!”
27th Nov 2016
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