Like father, like son. In the case of the James family that is most certainly true – well, almost.

Whereas dad David was a top junior pentathlete back in the day, son Henry is making impressive strides in the sport of triathlon.

Both are multi-discipline events, of course, and both require fitness, hard work, dedication and no little talent.

David – or Professor David James, Dean of Academic Development at the University of Gloucestershire to give him his full title – was a national champion some three decades ago, winning the British Junior Modern Pentathlon title in 1992.

Son Henry, meanwhile, is certainly a rising star, with the 19-year-old recently returning from his first overseas competition representing Great Britain where he finished in the top 10 in the elite Junior world duathlon championships in Spain.

Henry is Cheltenham born and bred – although he went to school at Sir Thomas Rich’s in Gloucester – but his dad is originally from Evesham, just over the county border in Worcestershire. David moved to Cheltenham after a few years in Sussex at the University of Brighton and the now 50-year-old has lived here for the past 25 years.

Gloucestershire has always been closely associated with modern pentathlon – think Richard Phelps and Graham Brookhouse back in the 80s and 90s – but it wasn’t the standout performances of those two Olympians that got David, who was also a British champion in several sports at under 16 and junior level, into modern pentathlon.

“We had a really strong swimming club in Evesham at the time,” he recalled. “They produced a number of Olympians but it wasn’t just the swimming, the club were very strong on multi-sports.

“In those days, triathlon wasn’t as big as it is today, and wasn’t in the Olympics, so I chose modern pentathlon.”

And that’s a sport that if you want to make an impact – and David certainly made an impact – you have to be good at running, shooting, fencing and show jumping as well as swimming.

“Initially I did biathlons,” he said, “that’s a run/swim combination. I went to the nationals and my swimming was always good, it was my running that wasn’t so good.”

That wasn’t the case for too long.

“I started to excel in my runs and I went from doing triathlons to modern pentathlon, it was a revelation,” he said. “I was never good enough at swimming to win at the top level even, though I was still quite good, but the pentathlon was great because there were four other sports I was good at as well which made me competitive.”

And he was a lot more than just "competitive" of course.

“I was pretty strong in running in pentathlon terms,” said David. “I could shoot and I was generally okay with the horses. With the riding I was very lucky to have had some very good coaches when I was younger, it was the athletes who came to the horses late who struggled with it.”

And his fencing was good too, so good, in fact that he became a national junior champion, something he described as “very satisfying”.

And while that 1992 British Junior Modern Pentathlon win was also very satisfying – that’s something of an understatement! – it was also his swansong at the top level of the sport.

“I did finish as a junior,” he said. “I was very keen to knuckle down and commit to my final year at university.

“I’d been all over the world, it was a great experience, it gave me the opportunity  to see lots of places that I’d never have seen. I went to Bulgaria, Russia, Hungary – the pentathlon was massive in Hungary – and South Africa. I suppose the highlight was getting a world ranking in the top 20.”

But once he’d stepped down from top-level sport, that was not the end of his travels, because he was a key figure in preparing the Great Britain team for the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta.

“The conditions in Atlanta were very extreme,” said David, who had undertaken a PhD in Exercise Physiology with specialisms in endurance sport and respiratory physiology. “It wasn’t just the heat but the high humidity.

“For the Great Britain team it was a significant challenge to get into the best possible shape for those extreme conditions.”

David, who is married to Helen – they also have a daughter Holly who is a final year student in Nottingham – has retained his love of all things sport since those heady days in the 90s. He continued to run in his 20s and 30s, competing in several marathons, and in his 40s he returned to swimming, competing in many open water 10k marathons.

“These days it’s more just for fitness,” he said, “I try to fit it in when I can.”

And he’s also keeping a close eye on young Henry’s progress as well, of course.

“He’s doing really well,” David said. “I never pushed him to do a similar sport as me, he kind of gravitated towards it.”

So what was it that got Henry into multi-sports – and triathlon in particular.

“I went to Hyde Park to watch the triathlon at the London Olympics,” he said. “It was from that moment really, I remember thinking, ‘This is pretty awesome’,” before adding with a laugh, “Dad says he never pushed me but it was always in the background, he always liked me to do it.”

Dad knew that young Henry, who recently started a new job as a business apprentice, had potential of course although, equally, there is a realisation that there is a long way to go if he is to attain his goals.

He is currently focusing on the shorter distance triathlons but the expectation is that he will compete in the longer Half Ironman and Ironman in years to come.

Ask Henry which is his favourite discipline and he admits: “That’s a difficult one, it depends on how well I’m doing!

“I love the cycling but I’m running well at the moment so I’d say the running. The swimming is definitely my weakest discipline.”

That is something he is working very hard at to improve.

“I know I have to get better at it if I want to get to where I want to go,” he said. “I think the longer stuff is the more realistic goal.

“In the shorter stuff I could have a really good race and get selected for Great Britain for the Europeans or the worlds, but I don’t want to put too much pressure on myself.”

Dad agrees. “He’s really strong on the bike and I think he is running quicker,” said David. “I think his swimming is getting there. He’s got to make improvements in swimming, that’s the area, but I think he can go right to the top in the longer distance triathlon.

“He’s done a very impressive Half Ironman and he did well but he’s got a good few years to compete at the shorter format until he matures physically.”

That’s likely when Henry is about 24 or 25, an age when he will be approaching his prime, but if the two of them had a race now, who would win?

“I don’t think there is any question about who is the fastest James,” said Henry with a laugh.

Okay, so who has won the most medals?

“Ah, that’s a competition Dad’s winning,” said Henry, still laughing.

That may change in the future, of course, and there’d be no-one would be more pleased than David if it did.