FIVE members of Cotswold Pentathlon have qualified to compete at the Biathle and Triathle World Championships in Sarasota, USA next month.

They are training hard for the competition which involves running, swimming and laser shooting.

Poppy Clark, Estelle Depierre, James Hulme, Joe Ashworth and Orlando Clark will travel to the States as part of an 80-strong British Biathle and Triathle team.

Cotswold Pentathlon, a children’s group run by parents, has around 50 members and with the help of running coach Kerry Newell they compete in a variety of events ranging from full modern pentathlon – fencing, swimming, showjumping, running and shooting – or breaking down the individual disciplines of cross country running, fencing and shooting.

Training takes place at Westonbirt School (summer) and Sir William Romney’s, Tetbury (winter).

The age range at Cotswold Pentathlon is currently from seven to 18 years and members have competed as far afield as Guatemala, Turkey and Georgia.

Two of the older club members, Tetbury’s Zoe Davison and Jess Telford, who study at Wycliffe College and Pates Grammar respectively, are on the world class Pentathlon programme.

The five team members who are heading to US are:

Estelle Depierre (age 14) – Dean Close School. A keen pentathlete and veteran of many world-series biathle competitions.

James Hulme (age 12) – Malmesbury School. This will be James’ first world championships but he has represented his country many times over the last three years in both biathle and triathle. He won two gold medals in Austria in June this year.

Poppy Clark (age 12) – Beaudesert Park School. She is currently the British pentathlon champion in her age group and this will be her fourth world championships.

Orlo Clark (age 10) – Beaudesert Park School. Orlo will competing in the triathle competition which includes shooting as well as the usual run/swim.

Joe Ashworth (age 12). At school in Bath, Joe is a keen swimmer and runner.

Biathle (running and swimming) and triathle (shoot-swim-run) are sub-sports of modern pentathlon and were invented to create opportunities for training in a competitive environment.