Great Britain has an eight-strong team of pentathletes in Mexico City for the first World Cup of the year, which gets underway tomorrow (Thursday).
The GB team includes three pentathletes who represented Team GB at last year’s Olympic Games and one competing at their first World Cup.
Katy Livingston, who finished seventh at the Beijing 2008 Olympics and won bronze at last year’s World Championships, heads the British women’s entry for Mexico City. She is joined by Mhairi Spence, who won bronze at the 2006 European Championships.
Katy Burke competes in her third World Cup competition while Freyja Prentice makes her World Cup debut after securing fourth place in the British ranking list following selection events.
Sam Weale and Nick Woodbridge, who last year became the first British male pentathletes to compete at an Olympic Games since Atlanta 96, head the British challenge in the men’s event. They are joined in Mexico City by Russell North and Steven Mason.
The competition in Mexico City will be the first World Cup event to feature the new combined run/shoot replacing the individual shooting and running disciplines.
British pentathletes have been training for the combined run/shoot at the Pentathlon GB high performance centre at the University of Bath.
Women’s qualification takes place on Friday 27th March, with the women’s final on Sunday 29th March.
Modern Pentathlon is one of Britain’s most successful Olympic sports. The sport for women was introduced to the Olympics at Sydney 2000 and since then Britain’s women have won four Olympic medals – or 66 per cent of the medals available to them. Steph Cook won gold and Kate Allenby bronze at Sydney 2000, with Georgina Harland winning bronze at Athens in 2004 and Heather Fell winning Olympic silver at the Beijing 2008 Games.
Louise Hudson, Sportsister
The Women’s Sports Magazine
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