Bath trio make perfect start to European Champs
The British trio of Katy Burke, Kate French and Olympic silver medallist Samantha Murray made the perfect start to the Modern Pentathlon European Championships by winning team relay gold in Poland today (Thursday).
The British team, who train at the Pentathlon GB high performance centre at the Unviersity of Bath, led from the fen
cing at the start of the day and followed that with consistent performances in the swim, ride and run/shoot to take the first gold medal up for grabs at the championships in Drzonkow.
“We were always in the lead from the start of the day, so we couldn’t really have done any better than this,” said Istvan Nemeth, Pentathlon GB Women’s Head Coach.
“Everybody is happy,” he added. “Kate and Samantha are also competing in the individual competition and they will be able to go into that in a relaxed state of mind.”
All three members of the gold medal winning women’s relay team are University of Bath graduates. Murray has just graduated with a French and Politics degree and French with a Sports Performance degree. Burke has a Coach Education and Sports Development degree.
Tomorrow (Friday) the men take centre stage with the young British team of Jamie Cooke, Sam Curry and Joe Evans contesting the men’s relay.
Women’s team relay results
Gold: Great Britain (Katy Burke, Kate French & Samantha Murray) – 5340 points
Silver: Poland (Oktawia Nowacka, Aleksandra Skarzynska & Katarzyna Wojcik) – 5282 points
Bronze: Germany (Claudia Knack, Annika Schleu & Lena Schoneborn) – 5262 points
