A 30 strong British team of Biathletes embarked on the demanding journey to Central America and faced the 36 deg C heat and 60%+ humidity of Guatemala's  Pacific Coast.

Fifteen countries were represented including newcomers Japan. South Africa, Egypt and hosts Guatemala had strong teams and next years World Championship Hosts Georgia were also present.

GB's team was not up to their usual numbers due to a combination of high costs and safety fears. The cost of attending was indeed high but fears over safety were allayed by the LOC who maintained excellent safe transfers and very good safe accommodation.

Competition day arrived with clear skies and no sign of the seasonal thunderstorms which plague this area at this time of year. The exceptionally hot and humid condition, as was to be seen suited the locals, South Africans and Egyptians better than they did the British athletes.

First up for GB were the Youth E Girls with Poppy Clark and Olivia Heron who both managed well to finish in 4th and 6th respectively with times of 4 mins 52 secs and 4 mins 54 secs. Egypt taking gold and RSA taking silver and bronze.

The Youth D Boys provided GB with the team's fist medal courtesy of Jack Goodman who finished third behind two Egyptians in a time of 4mins 14 secs. Aurelio Calipa and Josh Dreelan finished 4th and 5th in 4:17 and 4:33 to ensure the team gold for GB.

The Youths D Girls Race saw another GB team win courtesy of Saoirse McClure-Fisher 4th (4:22), Sophie Mabbs 7th (4:34) and Rebecca Wren 8th (4:37) in a race dominated again by RSA and Egypt.

The Youths C Girls was won by Japan with Daisy Anderson again agonisingly close to the medals in 4th place in 5 mins 39 secs and with Alannah Mabbs 7th (5:51) and Jessica Sutton 12th (6:30) took another gold team win for the GB.

The Youth B Boys race was a much closer affair with Matthew Griffiths leading into the dubiously long swim but a slight error on the final leg of the swim meant a he had to settle for a very well deserved Silver medal behind an Egyptian in a time of 9 mins 24 secs. He was closely followed by Jonathan Chatten who collected bronze in a time of 9 mins 29. Bradley Sutton who was 4th (9:35) completed another gold winning team. Sam Matthews 8th 10:14), Chris Luff 10th (10:24), Michael Sallis 11th (10:25) Elliott Lavile 12th (10:27) and Charlie Goriup 14th (10:43) completed the team.

GB were represented by India Cooper and Olivia Lowe in the Youth B Girls race and they finished in 5th (11:17) and 7th (11:50) in a race dominated by the Russians.

Greece took their only gold medal in the Youth  A Boys race in which our sole representative was Alexander Allen who finished in 8th place in 12mins 31secs. Unfortunately for all the 1500 metres run courses the local organisers forgot to completely change the course from the previous 1000 metes resulting in some quick time despite the rather long swim.

The Junior and Senior races were run together and provided the GB team with more medals. Hannah Parkinson took bronze in the Junior race in a time of 13 mins 38 secs. Rachel Jones claimed silver in the senior race in a time of 13 mins 09 secs  with Kathy Wellam bronze in 14 mins 06secs.

James Greenwell continued his improvement in the Masters A race with a fine silver in 8 mins 54 secs, Steve Luff gained (9:49) a bronze in the Master B race and Peter Collett (12:10) a silver in the Masters D Races but pride of place and two gold medals went to Barbara Holmes (10:19) Master B and Mary Collett (12:36) Master C.

So the provisional final table reads: