Medway teenager becomes National Champion
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James Myatt, Great Britain modern pentathlete from Strood was in action at the Under 17 National Tethrathlon Championships held at Bath University on the weekend of 17 and 18 February. The show jumping was the missing discipline, owing to weather conditions at this time of year. James, one of Medway’s promising young athletes, achieved a personal best in each of the four events and is now the under 17 tetrathlon National Champion. |
The first event in the competition was the fence. James scored 904 points after achieving 29 hits while conceding 21 defeats. This gave him second spot.
Each event of modern pentathlon is scored on a 1,000-points scale. For the timed events, swimming and running there are set times that equal 1,000 points. Competitors gain or lose one point for every second they are either side of this time.
The skill events are scored similarly in that there is a set score for shooting target points, fencing victories and a clean ride and competitors gain or lose points based on their performance compared to this total.
The shoot was the next event. James scored 186 out of 200 based on 20 lots of 10-point targets. 12 competition points were awarded for each point a competitor achieved beyond a shooting target total of 172. James’ score of 186 earned him top spot for the discipline and a total of 1,168 competition points.
James’ weakest event, the swim, came next. James completed the 200m distance in 2:23.97, knocking a whole eight seconds off of his previous personal best. This time saw him come in sixth place and left him top of the overnight leader board.
The only remaining discipline took place on the Sunday. James again ran a personal best in the 2,000m run. With a time of 6:15.40 he finished the run in second place to win the competition overall. James’ final total of 4,248 was his best for a four-event competition.
James is now looking to the senior national championships in June and the under 17 national championships in July.