JOSHUA Dreelan kept his cool in Latin America to get his hands on a team gold medal at this month’s Biathle World Championships.

The 11-year-old, from Corsham, battled past the sweltering heat in Guatemala as he helped Great Britain take the top prize in the U13 age group on October 10 at the Pacific Naval Base in Puerto San Jose.

Biathle is an offshoot of modern pentathlon and Dreelan, a member of Chippenham Amateur Swimming Club and Trowbridge Modern Pentathlon Club, completed two 500m runs, sandwiching a 50m swim, finishing fifth individually.

A pupil at King Edward’s School in Bath, he also competed in last year’s World Championships in Cyprus and was all the more delighted to clinch a new personal best time of 4:34 after pushing through the pain barrier.

“I cut my toe coming out of the swim. It hurt a lot but I had to carry on and finish the race,” he said.

“I wanted to go there and try and get a medal and I didn’t think that I was going to get one when I finished fifth. I had to wait about 30 minutes before I found out that we’d won a team gold and I was really happy with it.

“It was really hot. It was 36 degrees and 70 per cent humidity to it was really strange to come out into that from a hotel room with air-conditioning. I really liked the climate though.

“I’ve got a frame for my medal. I really enjoy doing the sport and I’d love to go again next year.”

Great Britain’s 30-strong squad finished third overall.MORE SPORTS NEWS, PICTURES AND REACTION IN THIS THURSDAY’S GAZETTE AND HERALD. FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @gazsport