ST ALBANS athlete Lucy Yates secured her place in the British team for the World Championships in Sardinia in September, after finishing fourth in the World Tour event biathle at Weymouth at the weekend of June 29 and 30.

By selecting this event to make her biathle debut, the 12-year-old had clearly opted against a soft introduction to the discipline, taking on an international field which featured a strong South African contingent.

The event included two 500m runs, broken up by a 50m swim through the English Channel the most difficult aspect of which is wading through the waves to a swimming depth.

After a decent first 500m, Yates battled in the water and began her final 500m run in tenth place. However, while the majority of the field ahead of her struggled to last the pace, Yates turned in a time exactly equal to her first 500m leg to cut through the field into fourth spot.

"That was the most difficult race I have ever been in," she said. "The sea-wading part was extremely tiring.

"I'm used to swimming in pools for triathlon and biathlon but swimming in the sea in something else."

Yates is in Newcastle this weekend, where she is bidding to take over the UK number one triathlon ranking in her age group with a good performance in the third national event of the season.

July 3, 2002 17:00