A Teesside teenager has managed the slightly unreasonable combination of GCSEs, international travel and four different sporting disciplines in the same year.
Sixteen-year-old Annabel Lupton, a Year 11 pupil at Teesside High School, returned from Australia in time to collect strong GCSE results after representing the UK in the Pony Club Tetrathlon International Exchange.
Annabel became the youngest athlete selected to represent the UK at the event, which combines running, swimming, shooting and horse riding. She finished fourth across the series in Australia while competing against teams from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the Republic of Ireland and the United States.
She also won the Pony Club UK Championship for the second year running in the Open Class, which is for competitors under 25.
There are easier ways to spend the months around GCSE season. Annabel’s year is a useful little counterpoint to the idea that academic achievement and serious extracurricular ambition have to compete for the same patch of ground.