Prentice wins silver and helps GB to team gold at World Junior Champs
Britain’s Freyja Prentice won the individual silver medal and helped Great Britain capture team gold at the modern pentathlon World Junior Championships in Hungary today (Saturday).
The 20-year-old climbed from fifth place going into the final event, the combined run/shoot, to cross the finish line second just four seconds behind Hungary’s Sarolta Kovacs.
Prentice, who is studying for a Biology degree at the University of Bath and trains at the Pentathlon GB high performance centre, started the run/shoot at the championships in Szekesfehervar 28 seconds behind Kovacs and another Hungarian, Adrienn Toth.
Kovacs opened up a lead at the front but Prentice reduced the deficit to just six seconds in the final shoot and then overtook her with about 300m to go in the final running leg.
But Kovacs then put in a late kick to race clear and take gold. Prentice’s performance was good enough for the Brirish trio of her, Samantha Murray and Katy Burke to leapfrog the Hungarians to take the team gold. Murray is studying French and Politics at the Univeristy of Bath and Burke recently graduated with a degree in Sports Performance.
Fellow Brit Kate French, a Sports Performance student at the University of Bath, just missed out on the individual medals, climbing from seventh to fourth place, while Murray finished ninth with Burke 13th.
A delighted Prentice said: “I’m so happy, there aren’t many days that go as well as this.
“My fence was a bit rough at the start, but then it got better, I had a pb in the swim and a good ride, but I knew I had to keep my head until after the final shoot, as anything can happen.
“I wish had won the individual gold, but I would have taken an individual silver and a team gold at the start of the day. She out sprinted me at the end and my legs had nothing left.”
French was also pleased with her fourth. “My aim was to be in the top half, so fourth was amazing. I’m very happy,” she said.
Prentice was joint second after the fencing with 21 wins and 14 defeats, while French was 10th with 19 wins and 16 defeats, while Murray and Burke were both 15th with 17 wins and 18 losses.
Burke clocked the third fastest time in the pool – 2:13.51 for the 200m freestyle to add 1200 points to her total – Murray was sixth fastest with 2:14.47. French was 11th with 2:19.46, while Prentice’s 2:20.35, a personal best, was 16th.
Burke kept up the pressure at the top of the leaderboard with a clear round within the allotted time in the riding arena to add the maximum 1200 pentathlon points to her total. That put her fourth going into the run/shoot.
Prentice and French had just one fence down each to add 1180 points to their totals, putting both within the top 10 going into the run/shoot. Prentice was just behind Burke in fifth with French in seventh.
Murray dropped 64 points in the riding arena and went in to the run/shoot in 12th.
Tomorrow (Sunday) Jamie Cook returns to action in the men’s final. James Myatt, Robert Flack and Daniel Worrall missed out on qualifying from yesterday’s semis.
Results
Individual
Gold: Sarolta Kovacs (HUN) – 5276 pts
Silver: Freyja Prentice (GBR) 5260 pts
Bronze: Elodie Clouvel (FRA) – 5104 pts
4th: Kate French (GBR) – 5076 pts
9th: Samantha Murray (GBR) – 5016 pts
13th: Katy Burke (GBR) – 4944 pts
Team competition:
Gold: Great Britain (Katy Burke, Frejya Prentice, Samantha Murray) – 15220 pts
Silver: Hungary (Sarolta Kovacs, Adrienn Toth, Krisztina Cseh) – 15064 pts
Bronze: France (Elodie Clouvel, Anais Eudes, Marion Laval) – 14888 pts
