British women edged out of medals at European Championships
12th July 2014
Britain’s women missed out on the medals at the Modern Pentathlon European Championships in Hungary today (Saturday).
Four British women qualified for the final at Székesfehérvár. London 2012 Olympic silver medallist Samantha Murray was highest placed British finisher in the individual competition, coming home in eighth, with Freyja Prentice just behind her in ninth.
Kate French finished 13th with 2012 world champion Mhairi Spence ending the day in 20th.
The scores achieved by French, Murray and Spence in the individual competition counted towards the team event, where Britain were just edged out of the medals in fourth.
Jan Bartu, Pentathlon GB Performance Director, said: “We were hoping for a team medal today, but our shooting let us down. Some of the athletes put too much pressure on themselves with their expectations today. Hopefully that’s a lesson we’ve learned.
“Overall I’m not too disappointed,” he added. "We are still a work in progress and we have a few weeks to prepare for the World Championships.”
After a disappointing fence in Thursday’s qualifiers, Spence found her form in today’s final winning 23 of her 35 fencing bouts for 238 pentathlon points and joint third place behind Germany’s Lena Schoneborn and Russia’s Donata Rimsaite.
Prentice won 20 of her contests for 220 points to go to the swim joint ninth, while Murray’s 18 victories put her 14th with 208 points. French won 15 bouts for 190 points to start her campaign in 24th.
The British team were third in the team event behind Russia and Ukraine.
Murray was best of the Brits and best of the pack in the pool. Her 200m freestyle time of 2:10.20 was the fastest of the day and was worth 310 points, promoting her to seventh overall.
Spence was just behind her in eighth overall after clocking a time of 2:20.83, the 16th fastest, to add 278 points to her total.
Prentice’s 2:23.30 was worth 271 points, which saw her drop to 15th, while French’s 2:18.83 added 284 points to her tally pushing her up to 20th.
France’s Elodie Clouvel was the new leader, while Ukraine now led the team event with the British team moving up to second.
Murray was one of only two athletes to go clear in the allowed time in the riding arena – she and Ukraine’s Victoria Tereshuk both collected the maximum 300 riding points.
That pushed Murray up to fifth place and she started the run/shoot just 14 seconds behind Clouvel, who still led. The top-six athletes were separated by just 18 seconds at the start of the run/shoot.
Prentice added 286 points to her total in the ride, putting her 10th overall, while Spence’s 257 points put her 13th and French’s 274 points kept her 20th.
Ukraine continued to lead the team event, with Great Britain second and Italy third.
Murray dropped down the leaderbord with a disappointing first shoot, but then ran strongly with a combined event time of 13:32.24 to secure a top-10 finish in eighth. Prentice also battled her way into ninth with a run/shoot of 12:53.05.
French’s run/shoot time of 12:41.98, was the third best of the day and saw her climb from 20th to 13th, while Spence’s 13:28.58 saw her end the day in 20th.
Germany’s Beijing 2008 Olympic gold medallist battled her way up from fourth to take gold, from Ukraine’s Victoria Tereshuk – the bronze medallist at the Beijing 2008 Games - with Russia’s Donata Rimsaite taking bronze.
Schoneborn’s performance helped Germany edge on to the top of the podium in the team event, taking gold from Ukraine by a single point, with Italy just knocking Britain off the bronze medal position.
Tomorrow (Sunday) Joe Choong, Joe Evans and Nick Woodbridge represent Great Britain in the men’s final.
The 2014 World Championships take place in Warsaw, Poland at the beginning of September.
The 2015 European Championships will take place at the University of Bath from 17 to 23 August and will be the first opportunity for European athletes to achieve the Olympic qualifying standard for the Rio 2016 Games.
Women’s individual results
Gold: Lena Schoneborn (GER) – 1361 points
Silver: Victoria Tereshuk (UKR) – 1344 points
Bronze: Donata Rimsaite (RUS) - 1337 points
8th: Samantha Murray (GBR) – 1306 points
9th: Freyja Prentice (GBR) – 1304 points
13th: Kate French (GBR) – 1287 points
20th: Mhairi Spence (GBR) – 1265 points
Women’s team results
Gold: Germany (Lena Schoneborn, Anika Schleu & Janine Kohlmann) – 3912 points
Silver: Ukraine (Victoria Tereshuk, Anastasiya Spas & Iryna Khokhlova) - 3911 points
Bronze: Italy (Gloria Tocchi, Claudia Cesarini & Alice Sotero) – 3882 points
4th: Great Britain (Kate French, Samantha Murray & Mhairi Spence) – 3858 points
British team for 2014 European Championships
Individual competitions
Women
Kate French – 11.02.91, from: Meopham, Gravesend – lives: Bath
Mhairi Spence – 31.08.85, Farr, near Inverness – Bath
Freyja Prentice – 20.05.90, – Inverurie near Aberdeen - Bath
Samantha Murray – 25.09.89, Clitheroe, Lancashire – Bath
Men
Joe Choong – 23.05.95, Orpington - Bath
Jamie Cooke - 03.03.91, Cheltenham – Bath
Joe Evans - 05.09.93, Whitchurch, Shropshire – Bath
Nick Woodbridge – 01.07.86, Telford, Shropshire - Bath
Team relays
Women
Alice Fitton - 05.08.94 from Atherton, Greater Manchester - lives Bath
Jo Muir - 30.08.94, Dumfries - Bath
Men
Sam Curry - 03.09.93, Salfords, Surrey - Bath
Tom Toolis – 23.12.92, Hornchurch, North East London - Bath
Mixed team relay *
Samantha Murray
Joe Evans
*may be subject to change
2014 European Championships schedule
Thursday 10 July: women’s heats
Friday 11 July: men’s heats
Saturday 12 July: women’s final (incl team competition)
Sunday 13 July: men’s final (incl team competition)
Monday 14 July: mixed relay
Tuesday 15 July: men’s & women’s team relays