With eight places up for grabs in both the men's and women's events, all the finalists knew this would be an ideal opportunity of booking their spot in London in 12 months' time.

Prentice again showed she is one of the best in the world at the final event, the controversial combined run and shoot, to climb from 12th to eighth.

"I'm so happy," said 21-year-old Prentice from Inverurie, who went into the event as world junior number one.

"The pressure on the British girls to get those places has been immense.

"I let myself down in the ride today and my shooting didn't help, but my running saved the day."

Prentice, who combines training with studying for a Biology degree at the University of Bath, was locked in battle with the Russian pair of Ekaterina Khuraskina and Evdokia Gretchichnikova for eighth place throughout the run/shoot.

But she made sure of eighth on the final run, finishing two seconds ahead of Khuraskina and 13 seconds clear of Gretchichnikova.

Prentice, Heather Fell, Mhairi Spence and Katy Burke all began the day with a realistic chance of making the top eight but all failed to make much of an impression.

Fell finished 23rd, Burke 28th and Spence 33rd in an event won by Germany's reigning Olympic champion Lena Schoneborn (pictured) ahead of Hungary's Adrienn Toth and Victoria Tereshuk of the Ukraine.


But Prentice is not ruling her teammates out of London 2012.

"Everyone's congratulating me but there's a lot of competitions left and a lot of places up for grabs, and the standard of our girls we could easily go and win the next few major championships, and then it's back to square one again.

"But I'm heading in the right direction," she admitted.

Pentathlon GB performance director Jan Bartu admitted the pressure had told on the Britons.

"You could see it in the fencing, they did everything they could in the pool, none of them rode well but it's a happy ending," he said.

"We said at the beginning of the season this would be the ultimate test for us.

"We have to prepare for the Games.

"I can't imagine it is going to be any easier in London.

"They need to look at themselves objectively and just move on."

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