Hartpury Modern Pentathlon students represent GB

The Youth A European Championships recently took place in the town of Szekesfehervar in south west Hungary. Taking part were 58 men and 46 women from a total of 25 nations.  Selected to represent Great Britain were Hartpury Academy students Jemma Westgate and Ryan Smith.

They left these shores with a quiet confidence having only returned from a pre competition training camp in Barcelona the week before departure.

In a very strong mens field the competition was fierce with no quarter asked, and no quarter given. The fencing field was tough, and in a situation like this it is literally only the strong that survive.The men fenced first and the team made up of Ryan Smith and two athletes that train regularly at Hartpury, Joe Evans and Sam Curry, started steadily, and as the day progressed went from strength to strength. Joe finished in second on 984 points with Sam on 920 and Ryan rather disappointingly on 728.  However this put the team in second place. All the athletes swam well with Ryan recording a personal best for this event.  The team stayed in second.

Then on the second day came the combined event. Joe started in first place and was never headed.  He was followed up by Sam who finished in sixth position overall and Ryan was supporting in a midfield place. However as a team they won a Silver medal, and Joe was individual Gold medalist.  He acknowledged the input he has had from the Hartpury Academy Modern Pentathlon Staff and the use of their excellent facilities in helping to produce that result.

On the following day was the relay and the team reproduced their form and took Silver in the team relay.  Also involved was another athlete that trains regularly at Hartpury and that was Tom Lees.

In the ladies competition Jemma Westgate was selected as the number one athlete in the country from the selection process.  She competed well, but the team found the going tough and after a promising start fell away to finish mid table as a team with one athlete, Alice Fitton finishing in seventh place in her first international competition at this level, which was a credible performance. Hartpury's Jemma westgate had a difficult day in the fencing and finished the competition well down.

In all excellent results from the boys team and proof that the benefits gained from the training provided at Hartpury within the
Academy is producing athletes that are going from strengh to strength.