A Burnham-On-Sea teenager is celebrating after a successful summer competing in modern pentathlon events across the UK.
Elizabeth Tolley, 14, currently trains with several British Pentathlon coaches and has developed her sporting interests of running, shooting, fencing, swimming and riding through modern pentathlon.
She has built on her success of last year, when she won the under 15 Biathle World Tour competition, competing for Great Britain in races across Europe.
This year, she has competed in South West and national competitions that involve a combination of four of the five disciplines and she’s currently the Under 17 National Modern Triathlon Champion.
She’s also the silver medallist at the South West Modern Tetrathlon (Run, Shoot, Swim, Fence), the Silver Medallist at the National Biathle Championships (Continuous Run, Swim and Run), and is the current Year 9 National Schools Biathle Champion.
Capping her successful year, Elizabeth also ranks as the Number 1 under 17 biathlete in the country, being the winner of the British Biathle series ranking event held throughout the summer around the UK.
She told Burnham-On-Sea.com: “I love the sport of Modern Pentathlon and all the variations of it. It is really competitive and so I have had to learn how to control my aggression when I am competing, especially in the shooting and fencing, as well as building up my speed and strength in the running and swimming.”
Burnham Lions recently presented Elizabeth with a donation, pictured below, to help her training and also to purchase a gun for use in her sporting events.
She said: “The sponsorship that Burnham Lions Club has given me means I can buy my own gun which will help enormously with practicing and in competitions. I am now really looking forward to the coming year and can’t thank the Lions enough.”
Her achievements in the Biathle discipline saw her selected to represent Great Britain for a third successive year and she has just participated at the Biathle World Championships in Batumi, Georgia where she finished sixth in the under 17 individual competition and won a bronze medal in the three-girl team event behind South Africa and Russia.
She said: “This was a fantastic experience, racing against the very best in the world. It is quite frightening lining up against Russians, South Africans, Indians, Egyptians and loads of other champions from around the world, but very exciting as well.”
“The race was tough on a difficult course and I was pleased with my result, since as I was the youngest in the race by nearly 18 months. To win a bronze medal in the team competition with two other British girls finishes a brilliant year for me. I would like to say thank you to everyone who sent me good luck as it really helped.”
She won a bronze medal in the team event at the Biathle World Championships in Batumi, Georgia
