Beijing 2008 silver medallist Fell produced a strong run/shoot to climb from 12th place to sixth in the individual competition and ensure Britain claimed a team medal. 

Spence came home eighth, with Livingston 20th and Louise Helyer, the British non-scorer in the team competition, finishing 15th.

All four of the Britons made a decent start to the day.

Spence was the highest placed of the British pentathletes after the fencing, winning 20 of her 35 contests for joint 10th. 

Helyer and Livingston were equal 13th with 19 wins a-piece, while Fell was joint 15th with 18 wins.

It put Britain second behind Russia in the team event. 

Helyer was the best of the British athletes in the pool, clocking a time of 2min 15.51sec for the 200m freestyle, the seventh fastest of the day.

That was enough to put her sixth overall going into the showjumping.

Fell’s 2:17.24 was ninth fastest, and she climbed to 12th overall, while Spence’s 2:18.23 was 11th fastest, putting her eighth overall. Livingston’s 2:19.79 put her 13th overall - ensuring that all four Britons were in the top-13 going into the equestrian element. 

Britain remained second in the team rankings, but host nation Hungary were now at the head of the field, with Russia dropping down to third. 

There was a torrential downpour during the showjumping discipline, making conditions tricky for the riders, but the British quartet all handled the conditions well.

Spence, Helyer and Livingston all went clear but incurred some time penalties.

Spence and Helyer collected eight time penalties each, which meant Helyer went into the combined run/shoot in fourth place, 32 seconds behind leader Amelie Caze of France, with Spence a further two seconds behind her in fifth. 

Livingston also went clear but dropped 20 points from the maximum 1,200 to go into the run/shoot in 10th.

Fell was just behind her in 12th after dropping 40 points from the ride.

Britain remained second to Hungary in the team event. 

Fell produced a strong run/shoot – her time of 12:06.60 was ninth fastest, making her the fastest Briton.

Spence’s 12:35.08 was 20th fastest, with Helyer recording a time of 13:03.52 and Livingston 13:04.20.

Gold went to France’s Amelie Caze, who retained her title just ahead of Olympic champion Lena Schoneborn of Germany, while Lithuania’s Donata Rimsaite came from 11th place going into the run/shoot to take the individual bronze, producing the fastest run/shoot of the day.

Schoneborn climbed from seventh to second in the individual competition to help Germany to gold in the team competition, with Hungary taking silver and Britain the bronze.