Reaping the Harvest at –the British Modern Pentathlon Championships 28th – 30th August 2010, Solihull Birmingham

DAVID CARR – Youth C Boys National Champion 2010

Arriving at Solihull in the middle of the night was rather tiring the day before a competition. However, I started the next day with an early start on the shooting range which went fairly uneventful but successful with a starting score of 81 out of 100.

I went on to the fence in a mixed pool (girls and boys) of 27 competitors. In the middle photo, I was fencing Luke Wood who finished 3rd in the overall competition. I was facing the camera in the red mask. It was a long, tedious and intense period of 2 hours from which I emerged the victor of the discipline with 20 victories.

After the fencing, there was a tight turn around to get changed into my riding gear and whizz off to the Riding Stables which was a 10-minute drive from the Leisure Centre. This was the most nerve-racking discipline for me as I had never ridden in any competition before – not even a local gymkhana! I was pacing the floor before we left for Solihull and this was the reason why I had not slept very well the night before. On top of that, to make matters worse, I was the last to ride for the day as the leader of the competition at this stage. The waiting......

Well, it paid off! As soon as I saluted the judges, I cantered off to clear the 9 jumps. There were a couple of hairy moments at jump 6 where the horse almost stopped and jump 9 where the pole was knocked by the horse’s hooves but fell back in the cups holding it. I emerged with a clear round of 56.4 secs only to be pipped by hundredths of a second for best ride of the day. The day ended on a high for me with a strong lead of 324 points over the competitor with the next highest points.

On the second day, the morning swim refreshed the boys and girls to carry on to the next discipline. I was in Lane 2 (closest to the camera) finishing 4th in the swim with a PB of 1:07.31 (just missing out on 2nd & 3rd place - see photo).

Then came the most dreaded discipline of all!!! THE RUN..... Unfortunately, I sustained an injury to my foot 3 weeks before the championships after falling off a horse during training and hitting the wooden fence on the way down. Thank God I had no broken bones and was able to compete. The run heats started off fine and carried on like clockwork. However, when it came to my heat, the heavens opened and there was a torrential downpour. We begged the starter to delay the heat but he said that it had to carry on as planned being the Nationals. This 1000m run felt like eternity. Halfway through, I started struggling due to my foot injury but managed to stay in contention for the champion’s trophy by running my socks off and coming in 5th. Total points was 5236 which secured me the 1st place with 448 points ahead of the 2nd competitor.

I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to my coaches who have played a vital part in my road to success.

Shooting – Bill Bland (North Kent Modern Pentathlon Club)

Fencing – Janet Huggins and Trevor Hill (Meopham and District Fencing Club)

Riding – Kelly Fowler, Traci Bourne and Staff at Knight’s Place Farm Cobham

Swimming – Black Lion Swimming Club

Running – Medway and Maidstone Athletics Club

Also to thank are the team at Medway Hospital Children’s physiotherapy unit, Mark Heffernan, Kyra deConinck and Staff at Sweatshop Maidstone for help during the rehabilitation process after my injury which is on-going.

David Carr 9MBR

All in all, it was a gruelling but rewarding experience for David who has now written his own history book by winning the 1st place trophy for Youth C Boys (13-14 years old) 2010 British Modern Pentathlon Championships.