French and Cooke round of Euro campaign with fifth place
17th July 2013
Kate French and Jamie Cooke couldn't end Britain’s Modern Pentathlon European Championships campaign on a high note as they just missed out on the mixed relay medals in Poland today (Wednesday).
French and Cooke came home in fifth place in Drzonkow this afternoon, as Ukraine pipped Russia for gold.
It means the British team will return home with two gold medals and a bronze from the seven days of action, with golds in the women’s team relay and women’s team event, and with the men contributing a bronze from the men’s team relay.
Today was the end of a gruelling campaign for the young British pairing of French and Cooke – they had both already competed in three days of pentathlon, having completed their respective team relays and their individual qualifiers and finals.
Jan Bartu, Pentathlon GB Performance Director, said: “It was the fourth competition in a week for Kate and Jamie so it was a test of their endurance, toughness and willingness to go another day.
“To finish fifth out of 10 teams in the mixed relay today was a creditable performance,” he added. “We’ve had a successful European Championships. It’s been a good stepping stone towards the World Championships at the end of August.
“We’ll now go back to Bath and regroup for a few days. The opposition is going to be really really strong, so that leaves us with more work to do.”
French and Cooke had to battle back from a poor start today that saw them joint eighth out of the 10 teams in the fencing, with 21 wins and 33 defeats for 694 points.
They produced the second fastest 2x100m relay swim of the day – their time of 1:58.06 gave them a hefty 1384 pentathlon points. That meant they went to the ride in eighth place.
French and Cooke climbed up to sixth during the relay ride. They climbed another place to end the day in fifth with a run/shoot time of 11:21.36, the fourth fastest time of the day.
Russia led throughout the day but were pipped by Ukraine in the run/shoot.
The 2013 Modern Pentathlon World Championships take place in Kaohsiung, Chinese Taipei from 21 to 27 August.
European Championship results
Mixed relay
Gold: Ukraine (Viktoriya Tereshchuk & Pavlo Tymoshchenko) – 5846 points
Silver: Russia (Donata Rimshayte & Alexander Lesun) – 5836 points
Bronze: Lithuania (Laura Asadauskaite & Justina KInderis) – 5810 points
5th: Great Britain (Kate French & Jamie Cooke) – 5654 points
British medals
Gold
Women’s team relay - Katy Burke, Kate French & Samantha Murray
Women’s team – Kate French, Samantha Murray & Mhairi Spence
Bronze
Men’s team relay – Jamie Cooke, Sam Curry & Joe Evans
The GB team for Modern Pentathlon European Championships in Drzonkow in Poland is:
Women
Katy Burke – 01.06,89, Cleveleys, near Blackpool – Bath
Kate French - 11.02.91, Meopham, Gravesend - Bath
Samantha Murray – 25.09.90, Clitheroe, Lancashire – Bath
Freyja Prentice - 20.05.90 – Stavanger, Norway - Bath
Mhairi Spence – 31.08.85, Farr, near Inverness - Bath
Men
Jamie Cooke - 03.03.91, Cheltenham – Bath
Sam Curry – 03.09.93, Redhill - Bath
Joe Evans - 05.09.93, Whitchurch, Shropshire – Bath
Sam Weale – 09.02.82, East Coker near Yeovil, Somerset
Nick Woodbridge – 01.07.86, Wellington, Shropshire - Bath
European Championships schedule
Thursday 11 July – women’s team relay – Katy Burke, Kate French & Samantha Murray
Friday 12 July – men’s team relay – Jamie Cooke, Sam Curry & Joe Evans
Saturday 13 – women’s individual semi-finals – Kate French, Samantha Murray, Freyja Prentice and Mhairi Spence
Sunday 14 July – men’s individual semi-finals – Jamie Cooke, Sam Weale & Nick Woodbridge
Monday 15 July – women’s final – qualifiers from Saturday
Tuesday 16 July – men’s final – qualifiers from Sunday
Wednesday 17 July – mixed relay – Jamie Cooke & Kate French