Chen produced a terrific run/shoot to climb from second place to top spot on the podium, with Lithuania’s Laura Asadauskaite winning silver and Germany’s Olympic champion Lena Schoneborn taking bronze.

Chen said: “I’m very excited.

 

"I didn’t believe I could win today.”

Schoneborn also collected team gold as part of a German team which also included Eva Trautmann and Janine Kohlmann, who edged Britain into the silver medal position.

Katy Livingston, Heather Fell and Mhairi Spence’s team silver was a repeat of the same trio’s performance at last year’s World Championships in Budapest.

 

The Hungarian team of Sarolta Kovacs, Leila Gyenesei and Zsuzsanna Voros took team bronze.

Schoneborn, who climbed from 10th place in the run/shoot, said: “I’m really surprised and excited to do so well.

 

"I didn’t think I would move up so many places.

 

"It’s my goal to defend my Olympic title in London in 2012.

“The atmosphere that the combined event creates has been fantastic and it has been very special here at this competition.

 

"At these worlds, the crowd have been very cheerful and the combined helps that a bit.”

Chen had started the run/shoot 16 seconds behind Russia’s Polina Struchtkova, but shot so well that she exited the shooting range in first place after the first round of shooting.

She never looked back from there – despite a spirited effort from Asadauskaite, who went into the run/shoot in 12th place, 47 seconds behind the leader.

 

The Lithuanian produced the fastest time of 11min 34.76sec for the run/shoot, almost five seconds faster than Chen’s own time.

 

Struchtkova dropped down the field to finish 20th, with Aya Medany, Egypt's world junior champion, coming seventh and Amelie Caze, who won the individual gold at the last two World Championships, ending the day in 11th.
 

Fell (pictured) was the highest placed finisher of the British quartet that reached the final.

 

She worked her way up through the field from 19th to ninth with the fifth fastest combined event.

Fell said: “It’s nice to come away from a home championships with a medal of some sort.

 

"It would have been better to come away with more medals.

 

"It’s something to show for all our hard work this year.

“The whole set up here has been brilliant, all the officials and the way it’s been run.

 

"I think Britain should be proud of the way they’ve run this competition it’s been great.”

Mhairi Spence finished 14th, while Freyja Prentice ran the 11th fastest run/shoot to end her first World championships campaign in 15th.

Spence said: “I was surprised we got the team silver.

 

"I thought we might have dropped down to bronze. It’s always nice to win a medal and get on the podium.”

Livingston ended the day in 23rd.

 

That was a disappointment after she had led after the fence and swim, and went into the ride in first place.

She had gone clear until an alarm sounded to halt her round when judges spotted a pole had come out of one of the fences.

 

That disrupted her flow, and the horse balked at one of the next fences, throwing her over it.

 

She sustained a total of 268 penalty points in the round, dropping her down to fifth going into the run/shoot.

Livingston said: “The horse lost its confidence in me and I lost my confidence in it.

 

"My fencing was a pb and my swim was almost a pb (personal best, and I felt I was riding really well, so I thought it couldn’t get any better.”