Pentathlon: British women finish without medals at World Cup

March 19, 2012

After being one of only two teams to qualify four women for the final; an achievement they shared with the Russians, Britain’s women finished the second Modern Pentathlon World Cup of the year on Saturday, in Brazil, without any medals.

Beijing 2008 silver medallist Heather Fell was the highest finisher of the quartet of Brits in the women’s final in in Rio de Janeiro, coming 13^th.

Freyja Prentice came home 15^th with Katy Livingston 16^th and Mhairi Spence, who took silver at the opening World Cup in the USA a week ago, came 25^th.

Prentice made the best start of the Brits, winning 19 fencing contests for joint eleventh place. Fell wasn’t far behind with 18 wins for joint 13^th and Livingston won 17 bouts for equal 19^th with Spence’s 14 wins putting her joint 25th.

Fell was the best of the Brits in the pool, clocking a time of 2:15.98 – the seventh fastest 200m freestyle time of the day – to climb to ninth overall and Livingston’s 2:16.05 was eighth fastest and saw him climb to 15^th.

Prentice dropped to 19^th with 2:23.30 while Spence’s 2:17.82 saw her climb to 22^nd.

Fell’s 1140 points saw her drop to 12^th overall, while Prentice’s 1160 saw her climb a couple of places to 17^th. Spence went into the run/shoot in 25^th after taking 1160 points from the ride, while Livingston’s 1060 put her just behind Spence in 26^th.

Livingston produced the ninth fastest run/shoot of the day, a time of 11:45.50, to climb 10 places and end the day in 16^th, just behind Prentice, who climbed to 15^th in the run/shoot. Fell’s 11:55.10 for the run/shoot saw her emerge as the highest placed of the Brits in 13^th, with Spence ending the day in 25^th.

This year’s World Cups are an opportunity for athletes to try to secure places on the team to compete at the World Championships in Rome in May, which is the next chance for athletes to achieve the Olympic qualifying standard.

They can also score valuable ranking points at World Cups that could ultimately help athlete qualify for 2012.

A maximum of two British women can represent Great Britain in the pentathlon at the London 2012 Olympics and so far Freyja Prentice is the only athlete to have achieved the qualifying standard, but she is still not guaranteed a place on the team.

Lizzie Flint, Sportsister
The Women’s Sports Magazine

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