Zest Team biathlon members were at Millfield School in Somerset last Sunday in a national championship qualifying event, where competition was strong. The biathlon, consisted of a swim and run was split into a morning swim and an afternoon run on the tartan running track. Paul Chinn, the team coach, said the whole group performed excellently. Jordan Channon was first in the swim for Tavistock and charged down the pool and climbed straight out to get off to a terrific start. The team of Kate Marks, Molly Megicks and Beth Merriott all took to their extra length with zest and swam fantastically in the 50m pool. The boys team of William Carter, Sam O'Boyle and Rhys Merriott performed with style over 100m, putting them in a strong postion for the run. Hannah Ball and Amy Marks teamed up with Ellen from Kelly College and with strong swims that also put them in contention for the run. Sam Harmsworth in his first biathlon swam strongly into third place behind Oliver Lake and Cameron Carpenter-Warren from Kelly - this set up prospects for a highly competitive run. Jessica Fennel led the way in the swim with team mates Laura Aspen and Catriona Smith, who all needed to perform well in the run. The track runs in the afternoon brought the best fought competition from Team Zest as they all realised they were in medal contention. Jordan with a perfectly practised start, timed his race well to finish third in the run and third overall. Kate, Molly and Beth had good runs to take their team into fourth place. Sam and William battled together all the way to second and third fastest runs and with Rhys pulled themselves into an excellent second team place. Hannah, Amy and Ellen all had good runs to take them into third fastest team. In the next battle of the day Sam Harmsworth just managing to hold off Oliver and Cameron in the run to give Oliver and Sam the same points finishing in second and third with Cameron taking fourth. Jessica led all the way finished first in the run and took third place overall, Laura was fourth in the run and with Catriona the team took third place. Paul said: 'In the first race of the year, it was a major all-round great team performance along with some fantastic individual success. 'Seven of these athletes have qualified for the national championships in May.'
