Liam (Year 3 Rooksdown) attended the Modern Pentathlon and Laser Run World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, 4th September-8th September.
Liam trained hard throughout the summer as he knew he would be against boys a year older and better than the British Championships.
The individual event was on Saturday the 7th September. Liam had a game plan and went off hard. This initially put him in the mix with two Egyptian athletes that were ranked in the top 5 in the world. Liam had an excellent shoot and was a close second on the run behind the Egyptian leader. Liam again had an excellent shoot and tried to chase the Egyptian boy. All the athletes explained that the World Championship course was slower than other courses as it had a lot of running on the sand. An example was Liam's target man, the British 2nd placer as he went from 2min 12 sec at the British to 2min 20 sec at the World Champs. Liam took his time from 2 min 31 sec at the British Championships and smashed it to get 1 min 58 sec at the World Championships. Absolutely smashing the trend of slower times. This also meant he made a 41 second turn around on his British rival. It also meant Liam ran a faster time than the British Champion that had won in 2min 6 sec on a faster course. Liam was therefore 1st British home, 1st European home and finished a clear 2nd and took the Silver Medal at the World Championships!
On the Sunday it was the mixed relays. This consisted of being paired up with a girl from the same age group and country. The girls would do their 2 shoots and 2 runs then hand over, relay style to the boys to do the same. Britain had entered two teams based on the British Championships. This meant that Liam's rival was in the A team and likely to have a head start on Liam. It was also likely, due to the girls time difference that the Portugal team would be clear favourites for the Silver. There was a good chance Britain could take the Bronze. Liam knew he was likely to be chasing the British A team. After the girls, Liam was about 10 seconds behind the British A team. His rival had a slightly better shoot and took another second out of Liam. Liam chased him down on the run and closed to within a couple of seconds. This appeared to unsettle his rival who then lost some time on his shoot as Liam improved and took 6 seconds out of him. Liam then left the shooting range ahead and pulled away and beat him by 9 seconds and claimed the Bronze for his team.
A very successful Championships for Liam, considering he is a year younger than most in the race and is still aged to run in that age group next year.
Since the World Championships Liam has gone onto win two more medals at the Modern Triathlon British Championships. This time the individual bronze and team gold.
Congratulations from everyone at CHPS.