Travis takes silver at World Biathle Championships in Cyprus

Ivybridge Community College student has Olympic hopes

Ivybridge Community College student Travis Bramley has just returned from Cyprus after taking the silver medal in the Youth C Male (age 13-14) category of the World Biathle Championships.

He was narrowly pipped to the gold medal by Cypriot athlete Nicolas Ioannides, who was just 1.3 seconds ahead, after completing the initial 500 metre run, swimming 100 metres and then finishing off with a final 500 metre run.

But despite achieving his best result to date, the competitive 14-year-old was ‘disappointed at first’ knowing that the gold medal was within his reach.

“It’s such a good feeling to have got my first World medal,” said Travis, “but for the first few moments after the race finished I couldn’t help thinking that gold had been within my grasp. But it only took a few minutes for it all to sink in and for me to realise what an amazing achievement it was.”

After qualifying in a time of 4 minutes 50 seconds, Travis knew that he had more to give in the final, and set off along with the rest of the pack at a fast pace.

“Biathle is an intense sport,” he added, “and it’s certainly more of a sprint than a long distance rate. The pack set off so fast in the final, and my strategy was simply to keep the pace, get myself in a good position and then leave myself with enough fuel in the tank to do a strong second run.

“I came out of the first transition in joint first place – head-to-head with a Portugese athlete – who then started to fall back into the pack. A stiff breeze made the water very choppy for the swim phase, and I was then caught by Nicolas Ioannides, who swam ahead and was leading me after the second transition. With just 200 metres to go in the final run, Nicolas was about 20 metres ahead and I was battling it out for second position with a Russian athlete – Maksim Bakhur – who kicked for home. I put everything into my final sprint, and as I passed Maksim to take second, the two of us had caught up so much ground on our Cypriot rival that – had I had another 50 metres – I think I may have taken the title.”

Travis finished the final in 4:37.37 – 1.3 seconds behind Nicolas Ioannides, 0.5 seconds ahead of Maksim Bakhur and more than 15 seconds ahead of fourth-placed Adham Ali from Egypt.

An athlete on Ivybridge Community College’s Talented and Gifted programme, Travis trains up to six sessions per week at Dinnaton Swimming Club and another two at The City of Plymouth Athletics Club. He also runs on Dartmoor on Tuesday lunchtimes with fellow pupils at Ivybridge Community College.

The result follows on from Travis taking fourth place in his age group in Bulgaria in 2011 and 11th in his age group in Dubai last year, and he puts his dramatic improvement over the past 12 months down to training hard at shorter distances over the summer.

“I’ve narrowed it down to shorter distances over the summer training period,” he added.

“I’ve increased the number of 400 metre and 600 metre runs I perform in each training session, and I’ve also reduced the rest periods in between each run. I think that this prepared me much better as my increased sprinting power and fitness paid off at the end of the race.”

With the biathle season coming to an end, Travis is now turning his attention to an Olympic discipline – triathlon. As a member of both Plymouth Triathlon Club and the South West triathlon academy, he’ll be increasing his cycling training and continuing his swims at Bovisand and Plymouth Hoe. He’ll also be upping the number of sessions he does on his bespoke ‘turbo trainer’ at home – a machine that clamps the rear wheel of his bike and emulates the resistance that his bike would experience on the road.

“I love biathle,” added Travis, “but my ultimate ambition is to compete for Great Britain at a World Triathlon Championships and in the Olympics.”