Britain’s Heather Fell is set to lead a strong field of top female pentathletes in the Bath International Challenge next week.

Fell, who claimed the silver medal at the Beijing Olympics and is currently ranked number one in the world, is joined by 15 fellow British competitors, including world number three Katy Livingston and 2006 European Junior Championships bronze medallist Mhairi Spence. 

The event takes place on Thursday, 2^nd April at the University of Bath and will see the sport’s recently revised format in use, whereby the two individual disciplines of shooting and running are replaced by a combined run/shoot. This will join the traditional fencing, swimming and equestrian disciplines, with all of these taking place on a single day – this makes the Pentathlon one of the most physically challenging sports and a real test of endurance at the highest level.

Foreign competitors come from six countries around the world including Hungary’s Athens 2004 Olympic gold medallist Zsuzsunna Voros, with the 32-strong field featuring a total of 6 Beijing Olympians.

Modern Pentathlon has become one of British women’s most successful Olympic sports since being introduced in the Sydney 2000 games, with four Brits – Steph Cook, Kate Allenby, Georgina Harland and Heather Fell – having taken home medals in this period.

This medal haul could have been even greater had all four female pentathletes who achieved the qualifying standard for Beijing been able to compete; the maximum complement for the Games was four pentathletes, and the inclusion of two competitors in the men’s team meant two women had to miss out.

With the 2009 World Championships at Crystal Palace coming up in August, this event in Bath will be the ideal preparation for our ladies to build on Olympic glory and further cement their position at the highest level of international Pentathlon.

Further information can be found on the Pentathlon GB website at http://www.pentathlongb.org/ ^[1]

Michael Thorne, Sportsister
The Women’s Sports Magazine

More pentathalon on Sportsister:

Sportsister talks to Modern Pentathlete Heather Fell ^[2]

Sportsister talks to Modern Pentathlete Mhairi Spence ^[3]