It’s GOLD for British Women
24th May 2014
Britain’s women secured team gold at the Modern Pentathlon World Junior Championships in Poland today (Saturday).
The trio of Francesca Summers, Jo Muir and Alice Fitton missed the individual medals in the women’s final in Drzonków, finishing fourth, eighth and 26th respectively.
But their cumulative scores saw Great Britain win the team gold at the championships.
It was a particularly impressive achievement for 18-year-old Summers, the youngest member of the British team in Drzonków.
Her team gold at the World Junior Championships came just a week after she won individual bronze and helped the Pentathlon GB team to team gold at the World Youth A Championships in Budapest.
It was Fitton who made the best start of the Brits. She won 20 of her 35 fencing bouts to put her in joint ninth place with 220 pentathlon points.
Summers also fared well on the fencing piste, winning 18 of her contests for joint 13th and 208 points. Muir’s 14 wins saw her start her campaign in equal 26th place on 184 points. Lithuania’s Ieva Serapinaite was the early leader.
Fitton produced a strong 200m freestyle swim to climb up to fifth place. Her time of 2:11.40 was the second fastest of the day – it was only bettered by five-hundredths of a second by Hungary’s Zsofia Foldhazi, the defending World Junior champion and gold medallist at last year’s senior European Championships.
Fitton’s performance in the pool added 306 points to her total.
Summers’ swim time of 2:19.36 was the 17th fastest of the day, adding 282 points to her total and promoting her to 12th place overall.
Muir also climbed up the leaderboard. Her 2:15.50 was the eighth fastest and was worth 295 pentathlon points. That saw her climb to 20th place, with Ieva Serapinaite still in the lead.
With all three GB athletes in the top-20, prospects were looking good in the team competition.
It was Summers who went into the run/shoot as the highest placed of the British athletes.
She produced a composed performance in the riding arena to take 289 of the maximum 300 points. That pushed her up to eighth with a total of 779 points. She started the run/shoot 77 seconds behind leader, Ieva Serapinaite, who had a lead of 31 seconds over Foldhazi in second.
Muir added 276 points to her total in the ride, pushing her up to 16th overall on 755 points. She started the run/shoot 101 seconds after the leader.
But Fitton had a disappointing ride, accumulating 62 obstacle penalties and 34 time penalties to add 204 points to her total. That put her in 22nd, starting the run/shoot 126 seconds behind the leader.
Summers’ run/shoot time of 13:21.77 was the six fastest of day, promoting her to fourth overall. She finished 40 seconds behind Foldhazi, who retained her title.
Muir ended on a high note with a run/shoot of 13:24.78, the third best in the field, to finish eighth. Fitton’s 14:13.70 saw her finish 26th.
Tomorrow (Sunday) Sam Curry and Joe Evans contest the men’s final.
Women’s individual results
Gold: Zsofia Foldhazi (HUN) – 1318 points
Silver: Ieva Serapinaite (LTU) – 1308 points
Bronze: Anna Maliszewska (POL) – 1295 points
4th: Francesca Summers (GBR) – 1278 points
8th: Jo Muir (GBR) – 1258 points
26th: Alice Fitton (GBR) – 1177 points
Women’s team results
Gold: GREAT BRITAIN (Alice Fitton, Jo Muir, Francesca Summers)
Silver: China
Bronze: Mexico
GB team
Women
Alice Fitton (Age 19, from Atherton, Greater Manchester/ lives Bath)
Maili MacKenzie (Age 19, Dumfries/Bath)
Jo Muir (Age 19, Dumfries/ Bath)
Francesca Summers (Age 18, Dorking)
Men
Joe Choong (Age 19, Orpington/Bath)
Sam Curry (Age 20, Salfords, near Redhill /Bath
Joe Evans (Age 20, Whitchurch, Shropshire/ Bath)
Tom Lees (Age 20, Sanderstead/Oxford)
World Junior Championships schedule
Tuesday 20 May: women’s relay
Wednesday 21 May: men’s relay
Thursday 22 May: women’s semi-finals
Friday 23 May: men’s semi-finals
Saturday24 May: women’s final
Sunday 25 May: men’s final
Monday 26 May: mixed relay