PHILIP Graves headed up the North Yorkshire charge at the British Schools Biathlon Championships with his third silver medal in as many years.

The 15-year-old Archbishop Holgate School student came second overall in the Year 10 age group after setting the pace with the best swim of the section.

His 100m swim time of 58.80 secs earned him 1,213 points with his 1,000m run in 2mins 54.8secs yielding the same for a 2,426 point total to leave him just 38 behind the winner.

Graves was one of five York athletes belonging to both York City Baths Club and Nestl Rowntree athletics club to record a new personal best at the championships held in Macclesfield last Sunday.

Sister and fellow Archbishop Holgate pupil Victoria finished 17th overall in the Year 9 girls race with 2,114 points after a swim of 1-13.15 (1,069 pts) and a run of 3-22.51 (1,045).

Millthorpe School trio Laura Hunter, Sophie Hunter and Katie Hunter also did well. Laura came 15th in the Year 10 girls after a swim time of 1-15.31 (1,047) and run of 3-25.67 (1,027), while Sophie finished 13th in the Year 8girls with Katie three places back.

Sophie recorded a 50m swim time of 36.66 secs (1,034) and 3-32.93 run (985) for a 2,019 total, while Katie swam 37.12 (1,029) and ran 3-34.93 (973) for 2,002.

Pocklington School won fifth place in the Year 8 boys team competition after strong performances by Andrew Pearce, James Watkins and William Chapman.

Pearce finished the highest of the three in 16th place after swimming 30.42 (1,096) and running 3-36.03 (964) for a 2,060 total. Watkins was 24th with 1,976 after a 37.31 swim earned him 1,027 points with a 3-38.79 run adding 949. Chapman completed the team with 39.55 (1,005) and 3-47.75 (925) to round off the team's 5,966 total with his own score of 1,930.

Pocklington sixth former Thea Holloway produced a 100m swim time of 1-06.12 (1,139) to push her into eighth place in the Year 12/13 girls race, with a run of 3-29.07 (1,006) completing the 2,145 score.

Updated: 10:58 Thursday, March 18, 2004