DORSET Pentathletes were branded top club in the country for the third successive year at the 2009 National Biathlon Championships in Macclesfield.

The county took a huge squad of 31 competitors to the event and came home with three team gold medals, three team silvers, one team bronze and four individual medals with an impressive 13 athletes finishing in the top 10.

Dorset were pushed all the way by Yorkshire Region MPC but Mick Flaherty’s squad gained better team positions overall to win the club competition comfortably, completing an historic hat-trick.

Team gold medals were won by the Youth D boys 12-and-under, Youth C boys 14-and-under, and Youth A boys 18-and-under while team silvers were claimed by the Youth E girls 10-and-under, Youth D girls 12-and-under, and Youth C girls 14-and-under. The Masters Men completed the team accolades by capturing bronze.

In the individual competition, silver medals went to Zoe Gowers in Youth D girls and Africa Mason in Youth B girls while Bethan Whittall and Niall Laming both gained bronze in Youth D girls and Youth A boys respectively.

The championships are based around a swim-run competition with distances dependent on age. The shortest run being 1,000m, up to 3,000m, and the swim being 50m, up to 200m, with athletes getting a break between each discipline. In the first races of the day, Youth E boys and girls 10-and-under, Harry Buttle finished 23rd, Drew Sanson 28th and Ben Macklin 32nd with the team placing fourth.

In the Youth E girls the team finished second with Gowers producing an excellent performance to take individual silver. Colleagues Amber Cornick, Hannah Marklew and Beth Guy came 12th, 21st and 23rd respectively. In the Youth D boys 12-and-under, all of Dorset’s entrants did well to win the team title by just two seconds from Yorkshire Region. Oliver Mullins finished eighth, Harrison Yarnold came ninth, Hugh Ireland captured 10th while Bradley Mullins came home in 40th. All the team are from West Dorset Warriors and will be in the same age group next year apart from Mullins.

In the team girls event the A side finished second and the B team came seventh with Whittall (Weymouth SC) claiming third. Victoria Halford, Rebecca Bowles, Olivia Freeman, Amie Buttle and Aoife McCarthy finished eighth, ninth, 15th, 25th and 49th respectively.

In the Youth C boys and girls, the 14-and-under boys team had an excellent competition capturing team gold by 500 points, which was the biggest winning margin of the day.

Peter Horne came fourth with Tom Mules recording the fastest swim in 11th ahead of colleague Chris Perham in 12th.

Meanwhile, the girls’ team finished second and lost out on gold by just 30 points with Danielle Bury in eighth, Phoebe Notley in 15th and Laura Chitty 36th.

In the Youth B girls 16-and-under both Melissa Courtney and Joanna Puckett were unavailable due to exams so Mason took part in the individual event and claimed silver.

The Youth A boys 18-and-under team then took gold with Laming of Tornadoes putting together a good run and swim to finish third. James Dawson of West Dorset Warriors was fourth and the Tornadoes duo of Tom Crew and Tom Cain were fifth and 10th respectively.

The final event saw the Masters Men capture bronze with Nick Ireland finishing fourth ahead of Andy Whittal in 12th and Flaherty in 16th.

Flaherty said: “Once again the kids from the local area have done a great job in their efforts at the Nationals to win so much and retain top club status.

“The time and effort put in by the athletes over the last few months has paid off and I would like to thank all the various coaches who have helped prepare them.

“This year’s competition was a lot tougher than last year with many of the Dorset team still having another year in the age group they competed in. Also, the opposition and teams taking part were a lot better than last year but once again the Dorset Pentathletes finished the top team, which is an achievement they can be very proud of.”

Flaherty added: “The next event on the calendar is the World Cup Biathle at Greenhill Gardens, Weymouth on June 27, starting at 10am. All spectators will be welcome to come along to the event.”

If you are interested in sponsoring the country’s best biathlon team contact Flaherty at flaherty121@aol.com