September 4 - Britain’s women took the silver medals in the team competition at the modern pentathlon World Championships in China today.



Beijing 2008 Olympic silver medallist Heather Fell was the highest placed British finisher in the individual competition in Chengdu in eighth.

Team-mate Freyja Prentice, 20, produced the third fastest run/shoot of the day, climbing from 16th going into the run/shoot to end the day in a creditable ninth.

Samantha Murray, another 20-year-old, competing at her first senior World Championships. finished 22nd.

Britain went into the run/shoot in Chengdu in second place in the team competition 292 points behind France and only four seconds ahead of Hungary, but produced solid performances to secure team silver. 

France’s Amelie Caze(pictured) won her third individual World Championship crown - retaining the title she had won at Crystal Palace last year - and helped her country to team gold.

Fell led the British challenge from the start and was eighth after the fencing with 19 wins and 15 defeats.

Prentice won 15 of her 34 fencing contests for 19th place, while Murray’s 14 wins put her 22nd.

Murray climbed up to 16th with the fifth fastest swimming time, 2:min 14.41sec. Fell continued to lead the British challenge with 2:18.11, climbing a place to seventh overall, while Prentice’s 2:21.57 saw her drop to 23rd. 

Fell dropped 74 points from the perfect 1200 in a riding arena in which none of the 35 athletes went clear in the allotted time. Fell still remained seventh overall going into the run/shoot.

Prentice had four fences down to add another 1120 points to her total, promoting her to 16th going into the run/shoot, while Murray took 1044 from the ride, making her 19th. 

Fell climbed to fourth place after the first shooting element of the run/shoot, but had a disappointing second shoot and ended the day in eighth. Prentice’s time of 12:20.61 saw her climb fro 16th place to cross the line just behind Fell in ninth, while Murray dropped three place to finish 22nd.  


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