JOSHUA Dreelan is preparing to take on the world in his first-ever Great Britain kit when he competes at next month’s Biathle World Champion- ships at the tender age of ten.

Dreelan, who lives in Corsham and is a pupil at King Edward’s School in Bath, is set to jet off to Limassol, Cyprus, to mix it with the world’s best young competitors in the Youth E (ten and under) category on October 5.

Biathle is an emerging offshoot of modern pentathlon and Wiltshire youngster Dreelan will be completing two 500m runs, sandwiching a 50m swim, in a continuous race in the Mediterranean.

The Corsham competitor, who is a member of Chippenham Amateur Swimming Club and Trowbridge Modern Pentathlon Club, qualified to represent his country with a fourth-placed finish at the National Biathle Championships in Salford Quays, Manchester, in August, and says that he can’t wait for his world championship bow.

“I’m really looking forward to it. I’ve never been to Cyprus before and it’s going to be exciting,” said Dreelan, who also trains with Hilperton Running Club and fences at Bath Sword Club. “I’ve seen world championships in other sports before but I didn’t think that I’d be going to one so soon. The kit is a bit tight but I really like it.

“I like Biathle a lot more than I like Biathlon because you don’t have any stops. There’s a lot of adrenaline and it’s just a lot of fun that way.

“There’s no pressure for me because it’s my first (world championships), so I’m just going to see what I can do out there. If I finish in a medal position, that would be really good.”

Mum Tracy, who will accompany her son to Cyprus next month, added: “He started off doing biathlon through school but once he gave biathle a go, he seemed to like it a lot more.

“He had to work on his running a lot because he hadn’t done very much of it before, apart from crosscountry at school, but now he’s a lot quicker.

“He’s done really well to get there and he’s quite proud of his Great Britain kit.”

Any local businesses or sporting foundations interested in sponsoring Dreelan, whose final practice run will be at the Driffield Biathle on September 28, can e-mail dreelanfamily@gmail.com or call 07934 519910 for more information.

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