Radvan Qualifies for National Finals

The really bad weather over Easter made the Southern England Biathlon (Swim & run) championship a tough event for all involved.
Josh Radvan, defending his U17 title from last year, ran the 2km run in both hail and snow, but managed a good time, and therefore took a healthy lead into the swim. 
A long course PB in the 200m swim was enough for victory and to qualify him for the National Finals in Macclesfield in May.

The next weekend he competed for the Royal Grammar School in an invitational schools Biathlon event at Millfield School, Somerset.  The event was held during a Modern Pentathlon World Cup event at which athletes from all over the world were competing - the UK athletes going for their Olympic qualification points.
The schools event was designed to give competitors a chance to rub shoulders with some of the best Pentathletes in the world.

Josh started well with a PB in the 100m long course swim, leaving him in second place going into the run.
The run was held in terrible weather conditions, driving rain and the wind gusting strongly around the bends.
An athlete from Taunton took the 1km run out very hard, hoping to break away from the other athletes.  Josh tracked him carefully, pulled up to his shoulder with 400m to go and then kicked on the last bend to take the run by 1.5 seconds and overall gold in the Biathlon.

As a final bonus, the medals were presented by David Hemery, Vice President of the Olympic Association, and Zsuzsanna Voros, the Women’s gold medallist from the Athens Olympics.

Josh has a big few weeks in front of him as he competes in the trials for both the European Championship in Dublin and the European cup in the Czech Republic.
He has already been selected to travel to Berlin with the GB team in April, and was delighted to hear this week he has been promoted to the World Class Development Programme (WCDP) of the GB team. Having been in the GB Talented Athlete Programme for the past two years, this represents a significant step up for Josh.  The Programme supports athletes, only one stage below the Olympic Podium Programme. He will be contracted and funded to the National Modern Pentathlon GB Association and receive specialist training and coaching at the Bath National Training Centre.