TWO York area schools will be represented at the National Biathlon Championships in the spring after qualifying at the North East regional championships at Ampleforth College.

St Olave's School won the Year 7 boys event with Edward Clarkson doubling up with individual gold.

He achieved an impressive 2,190 points over the baseline target of 2,000, with a 50m swim of 33.62 and a 1,000m run in 3mins 39 secs, despite wet and slippery conditions and a gruelling uphill climb for the final 400m.

The rest of the team were: Thomas Kimpson swim 36.24, run 3.48, points 2,110, position 5th; Thomas Edwards 36.24, 3.50, 2,039, 10th; Sebastian Murgatroyd 37.64, 4.25, 1,874, 21st.

Pocklington School trio Aiken Walker, Robbie Addison and Sam Hamer won the regional title for the second successive year to book a place at Norwich.

The three, now in Year 11, raced over a 100m swim and a 1,000m run.

Walker led the team home with an individual sixth overall including fourth in the run, Addison was one place behind after finishing third in the run in 3mins 16secs, and Sam Hamer was quick on their heels in ninth place with a seventh-best swim of 1min 16 seconds.

The Year 8 boys team of Harvey Fenny, Edward Hamer, James Tyson and James Flint just missed out on team gold with Fenny scooping sixth overall with a run of 3.36.

The Year 9 girls finished third in their section with a resolution that Emily Newell, Katie Atkinson and Rachel Kendall need to work on their swim times but Atkinson's run of 3.50, putting her third, was more impressive.

Pocklington School also had plenty of individual performances to be proud of. Stuart Pearce won the bronze in the Year 9 boys after a swim of 1.12 and a winning run of 3.34.

His elder brother, Andrew, took fourth in his year group thanks to a swim of 64 seconds and a 3.26 run, both securing qualification for the national championships.

Georgia Byas was fifth overall in the Year 7 girls after a fine fourth-placed run of 4.05.

Angus Clark, of Lyndhurst School, was fourth in the Year 6 competition after an excellent fourth-placed swim of 36 seconds for 50m, and Kayleigh Kilsby improved on last year to come eighth overall.

Sixth-formers Ryan Duncan and Mike Hodgson came sixth and eighth, respectively.

Updated: 11:24 Wednesday, November 16, 2005