All four British women competing at the second Modern Pentathlon World Cup of the year have qualified safely for Saturday¹s final.
Beijing 2008 Olympians Heather Fell and Katy Livingston both qualified from today¹s semis at Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, as did Mhairi Spence, ranked number four in the world, and Freyja Prentice, the only British woman pentathlete to have so far achieved the London 2012 qualifying standard.
With a top-12 place needed in each of the three semis to progress to the final, 21-year-old Prentice was the first of the Brits to go through, crossing the finishing line in joint seventh in semi-final B. Her performances included a joint third in the fencing.
Fell, the Beijing 2008 silver medallist, clocked the third fastest time in the pool in semi-final A en route to comfortably securing a berth in the final by finishing joint eighth.
Spence followed up her silver medal in the opening World Cup of the year in Charlotte, the USA, on Saturday, by comfortably progressing to the final in Rio crossing the finish line in joint first.
Livingston lined up alongside Spence in semi-final C and had to demonstrate poise and determination to reach the final using Fell¹s pistol for the run/shoot after the laser barrel in her own pistol failed at the start of the warm-up. She finished 10th overall to secure the top-12 position needed to reach the final.
Performance Director Jan Bartu said: ³Katy did remarkably well to get through. A pistol is like an extension of your hand, so it¹s amazing that she qualified using a strange pistol and successfully defended her position.
³Other than that, they all had a reasonable day and it will be interesting to see how they do in the final.²
Tomorrow (Friday) Jamie Cooke, Steven Mason, Sam Weale and Nick Woodbridge represent Great Britain in the men¹s semis.
This year¹s World Cups are an opportunity for athletes to try to secure places on the team to compete at the World Championships in Rome in May, which is the next chance for athletes to achieve the Olympic qualifying standard. They can also score valuable ranking points at World Cups that could ultimately help athlete qualify for 2012.
A maximum of two British men and two women can represent Great Britain in the pentathlon at the London 2012 Olympics. So far Jamie Cooke and Freyja Prentice have achieved the qualifying standard, but neither are guaranteed a place on the team.
The British team train at the Pentathlon GB High Performance Centre at the University of Bath.
World Cup 2 12-15 March, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Schedule (Rio times are three hours behind GMT) Thursday 15 March: women¹s qualification Friday 16 March: men¹s qualification Saturday 17 March: women¹s final Sunday 18 March: men¹s final
GB team Women Freyja Prentice (Bath/Inverurie) Mhairi Spence (Bath/Farr near Inverness) Heather Fell (Bath/Tavistock, Devon) Katy Livingston (Bath/Guisborough, Cleveland)