HARRISON Yarnold has been crowned under-16 national biathlon champion.

The Askerswell athlete, who only turned 15 in September, captured the title with first place at the British Biathlon Championships at the Tudor Grange Sports Centre in Solihull.

Yarnold competed against 29 other under-16 boys who had qualified for the national final from events held all over the country.

The Dorset Pentathlete completed the 200m swim in just 2mins 6secs before going on to finish the 1600m run in 4mins 46secs.

Yarnold, who attends Exeter School, was later joined on the winner’s podium by fellow Dorset Pentathletes Bradley Sutton and Elliot Laville, who together claimed team gold in the national competition.

This year’s results show that Yarnold is moving in the right direction as he had previously finished third at the British championships in 2011 and second last year.

The talented teenager was also selected to be part of the World Class Talent Prog-ramme run by Pentathlon GB earlier this year.

And he recently returned from a week’s training in Hungary where he joined up with GB Pentathletes, as well as other competitors from across Europe.

Yarnold is now looking forward to qualifying and taking part in the national triathlon, tetrathlon and pentathlon competitions that are due to be held throughout 2014.