A TEAM of 86 athletes from Great Britain of which 18 were from Dorset Pentathletes showed the rest of Europe what a force the Brits are in biathle.

The Parque Urbano de Albarque, in Setubal, Portugal, hosted the European Champion-ships for the second consecutive year and the GB team grabbed a total of 32 individual medals, 14 gold, 12 silver and six bronze medals.

In the competition for the team event there were medals in each age group, with the top-three competitors in that age group’s times added together, once again GB were the top team with 15 team golds, one silver and a bronze, out of a possible 20 categories.

The athletes from Dorset were part of the British group that took part in the European Championships for Great Brit-ain, with the club having bagged European titles, a silver medal and one bronze.

The event consisted of a run/swim/run competition with distances comprising of a 500m to 1,500m run, a 50m to 200m swim, followed by the same distance run again, the distances varied with each age group.

The age groups started at 10-and-under and there were 10 different age groups in the male category with the same in the female.

The first race that contained Dorset athletes was the girls 10-and-under, where Anya Snowball finished fifth.

In the boys’ 10-and-under, Jake Fisher took sixth, while Josh Cobb was 13th. The next event was the girls’ 12-and-under with Daisy Davies claiming fifth place after going down with a sickness bug the day before which most probably cost her getting a gold medal and a place in the GB gold medal team.

In the girls’ 14-and-under the race, the distances were a 500m run, a 100m swim and another 500m run, and this saw Kizzy Price claim sixth place with Elizabeth Tolley in seventh.

The next races were the masters’ events where the competitors ran 1,000m, swam 100m and ran 1,000m.

There was a strong field in the races, in the women’s 40-plus, Emma Fisher took gold with Kay Evans the bronze. Laura Bratt was seventh with all three ladies making up the British team to take gold.

In the men’s 50 plus, Andy Price enjoyed a good race to finish fifth and was part of the GB team that took team bronze.

In the boys’ 16-and-under race, Bradley Sutton took gold with team-mate Harrison Yarnold claiming silver while Jamie Price finished in seventh.

Once again, the Dorset trio took team gold for GB.

In the girls’ 14-and-under category, Alexander Withey was fourth and was part of the GB team that took team gold.

The last races of the day were competed over a run of 1,500m, a 200m swim and a 1,500m run.

In the male 18-and-under event, Mathew Cook was fourth and was part of the gold medal team, while Ryan Flaherty finished 11th.

Harry Lane took gold in the male 21-and-under and was part of the GB team that took team gold.

Great Britain and Dorset team coach Michael Flaherty said: “This is an excellent achievement and was a great opportunity for all those involved to take part in a European Champion-ship in another great location in Setubal Portugal.

“To experience a different culture and enjoy the many other activities that the kids and families did was great.”

The Weymouth Biathle will be the next big event for the club which takes place at Greenhill Gardens on Saturday, September 6, with first race at 11am and last race at 1pm, this will also be the last event of the GB and World Biathle Series.

For further details about the club, contact Flaherty on 759047.

The club is also looking for sponsorship, if there is anyone interested in sponsoring Dorset Pentathletes then contact Flaherty.