North East England Schools Modern Biathlon Competition
On Sunday 14th November the Mowden Hall U11 Girls Biathlon team of Hannah Duff © Minna Dundas and Indigo Mason-Hornby competed in the regional round of the Schools Modern Biathlon Competition. There were 9 schools and 47 individual competitors in the under 11 girls section and the day started with the 50m freestyle race. The girls swam in heat 3 and Hannah won the heat in a time of 35.73 seconds, with Minna and Indigo close behind in 3rd and 4th place respectively.
After the swim event, Mowden were in second place in the team competition behind Hunter Hall, and Hannah was lying 5th as an individual going in to the 500m run. There were 12 competitors in heat 3, and the Mowden team performed well holding good positions throughout the race. Top result here was Minna Dundas who caught up with the lead runner from Hunter Hall coming into the final 100m but did not quite have the speed to get past her, however ran a fast time to finish second. Indigo and Hannah remained close throughout the race and paced themselves nicely to finish 3rd and 4th.
After a long wait for the results, Hannah finished 4th out of the 47 individual competitors and the Mowden team beat Hunter Hall into second place to take the gold medals in the team competition. Hannah now qualifies as a top individual for the Semi Finals of the competition in Macclesfield in January, and all three girls get to compete in the team event.
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Biathlon National Finals
Our intrepid trio of Under 11 girls, who had won their way through the local biathlon in Hexham, then the northern biathlon championships in Macclesfield in January, now headed for the National Biathlon Finals at Crystal Palace. Indigo Mason-Hornby, Hannah Duff and Minna Dundas travelled south with Miss Barrett and Miss Holloway on Saturday. After a pleasant evening at Indigo’s grand-parents’ house, they went to Crystal Palace Sports Centre on Sunday 27th March.
The first event was the swimming in the 50m Olympic sized pool. Afterwards, the run took place on the athletics track in the main stadium. Overall, the girls ended up in 9th place in the whole country. Many congratulations to them for this great achievement.