Young Hannah Morgado became the queen of the world on the sands of Egypt as she won her category twice at the 2024 UIPM Biathle/Triathle World Championships.

Hannah, who is 10 years old and competes in the U11 category in both biathle and triathle, hauled in no fewer than six medals at the world championships held in Port Said in Egypt from October 10 to 13. Hannah bossed her age group both individually and in the team section.

She won gold medals in the individual biathle as well as the individual triathle, before going on to help her team take gold in the team relay biathle, too. She further claimed three silver medals as well, in the team biathle, the team triathle and the team relay triathle.

No fewer than 600 athletes descended on the hot sands of Port Said for the world championships. Six of these athletes hailed from Mbombela and represented Mpumalanga and South Africa on the world stage, with one competing in only the biathle and the rest in both the biathle and triathle.

Hannah competed alongside fellow Mbombelans Chiniq Breet (U13 girls), Zoe Morgado (U15 girls), Lara van Rensburg (U15 girls), Maynard Breet (U15 boys) and Jan Wilkens (men 60+), who made up the group of six who flew to Egypt for the championships. Other than Hannah, Chiniq and Zoe were also medal winners in their respective age groups.

Zoe won medals in four of her six races. She won gold in both the team biathle and the team triathle races, earned a silver in the individual triathle race and a bronze in the individual biathle race. Zoe further finished fourth in the team relay biathle and seventh in the team relay triathle.

Chiniq won a gold medal in the team biathle and a silver medal in the team triathle. She earned top 10 finishes in all her other races, too – individual biathle (eighth), individual triathle (sixth), team relay biathle (sixth) and team relay triathle (eighth).

Lara and Maynard both finished ninth in their respective team relay biathle races. They also finished in the top 20 in their remaining individual and team relay races.

Wilkens managed an eighth place finish in the individual biathle, in what was a landmark appearance for him. At the age of 65, he was finally able to realise his dream of participating in a world championship. “I’ve participated in hundreds of competitions over the years, but never a world championship, so for it to finally come true at this age is really a special moment in my life,” he said.

He had previously earned South African colours for modern pentathlon when the country was still ruled by the apartheid regime, and therefore could not take part in world championships due to the international sanctions placed on South Africa. Wilkens intends to hang around for a while in the sport, too, so we might expect a triumph on the world stage at some point in the future.