TWO Pershore allrounders stormed through to the World Schools Biathlon national finals.

Tazmin Pugh, who attends Pershore High School, and Bowbrook House pupil Harry Sykes head to Crystal Palace in late March for the challenge involving running and swimming.

Pugh, 12, will be ranked second and 14-year-old Sykes 13th in London after impressing in the semi-finals of the competition organised by Pentathlon GB.

Pugh, helped by a Joanna Brown Trust grant, has made her first venture into biathlon.

Although invited to train with Pentathlon GB prospects, she concentrated more on swimming with the England talent development squad.

Pugh made four qualifying times in the National Age Group Championships last year and was eighth in the 100m butterfly final.

In the National Intercounty Team Gala, she was the top 12-year-old girl in the 100m backstroke and second in the 100m butterfly.

For Croome Hunt Pony Club, Sykes was one of the best tetrathletes nationally before progressing into five modern pentathlon disciplines.

He is training in fencing, having been with the GB squad in Hungary for coaching. Sykes finished third in the Pentathlon GB Triathlon Championships in the under 17s last summer as one of the youngest competing.

He joined the England talent programme and is one of five boys invited onto the world-class equivalent.