Britainâ€™s Livingston wins World Championship bronze

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British modern pentathlete Katy Livingston won World Championship bronze medal today (Saturday), giving a big boost to her bid to compete at the Beijing 2008 Olympics.

The 24-year-old produced an outstanding performance in Budapest to win her first individual World Championship medal.

World Champion Amelie Caze

British team-mate Heather Fell came just behind her in fourth place, while the Great Britain women’s team of Fell, Mhairi Spence and Georgina Harland also collected the team silver medal, behind Poland. But the day ended on a sad note, with Harland limping over the finishing line after injuring a calf muscle during the run.

LIVINGSTON, Katie
SPENCE, Mhairi
FELL, Heather
2008 MVM Modern Pentathlon Championships - Women - Relay - Final - Shooting (06.02.08 07:30 - 09:00)

“It was an amazing day today. It blows my last few World Cups out of the water,” she said. “It shows I can perform under pressure on the big day.

“I was more worried about making the final here. I didn’t have a good semi-final at the World Cup in Kladno (Czech Republic) and I was worried I might not make the final here.

“Once I was in the final I felt much more relaxed. Once you’re in the final you can only do your best and I just had a good feeling about it today,” she added.

But Livingston didn’t get off to the perfect start – she shot 172 from a possible 200 in the opening discipline - the 10m air pistol shoot. That put her 32nd out of 36 competitors at the stage of the competition.

“It wasn’t the best of starts, but I went into the fencing feeling relaxed and just aiming to do the best I could.”

Livingston then produced an strong performance in the fencing, winning 25 and losing just 10 of her contests. It was the second best performance fencing performance in the field.

“The fencing won me the bronze medal in the end,” she said. “I jumped from 32nd to fifth place. Then I had a solid swim, a really good ride and a good run to finish it off.”

Great Britain also secured a team silver medal today, courtesy of Heather Fell, Georgina Harland and Mhairi Spence.

Livingston and Fell had already achieved the qualifying standard for the Olympics by securing top-eight finishes at last year’s European championships.

And both did their selection prospects no harm at all with strong performances in the final qualification event for Beijing.

“It was fantastic to win an individual bronze and a team silver,” said Pentathlon GB performance director Jan Bartu. “This is a new generation of young athletes taking on the best in the world and we are very, very proud of them.

“Katy was very nervous at the start of the shooting phase, but she fought back and fenced fantastically. She produced a very high quality performance today.”

He also paid tribute to Harland, the Athens 2004 Olympic bronze medallist. She was working her way through the field on the run when she damaged a calf muscle 500m from the finish line.

She limped across the finish line in great pain to make sure Great Britain achieved a podium finish in the team event, and was helped on to the podium by Fell and Spence to collect her medal.

Bartu “She was in severe pain and limped to the finish. We only beat Hungary to silver by two seconds, and that was thanks to Georgina’s effort.”

Final results - individual
Gold: Amelie Caze (FRA) 5616 pts
Silver: Aya Medany (EGY) 5596 pts
Bronze: Katy Livingston (GBR) 5588 pts
(Sh 1000, F 1000, Sw 1280, Ri 1136, Run 1172)
4th: Heather Fell (GBR) 5560 pts
(Sh 1120, F 712, Sw 1348, Ri 1168 , Run 1212 )
19th: Mhairi Spence (GBR) 5348 pts
(Sh 1072, F 832, Sw 1304, Ri 1112, Run 1028)
30th: Georgina Harland (GBR) 5152 pts
(Sh 772, F 784, Sw 1296, Ri 1192, Run 1108)

Team results
Gold: Poland 16168 pts
Silver: Great Britain 16060 pts
Bronze: Hungary 16052 points

Fell started the day well, shooting 182 from a maximum 200 to net 1120 modern pentathlon points from the first discipline, putting her fifth. Spence shot 178 for 16th, with Livingston scoring 172 for 32nd and Harland scoring 153 for 36th place.

Livingston was the pick of the Brits in the fencing She won 25 and lost 10 of her contests. It was the second best performance in the field, earning her 1000 points and taking her points total to 2000, propelling her to fifth overall.

Spence won 18 and lost 17 for 832 points, remaining 16th overall. Harland won 16 ands lost 19, remaining in 36th, while Fell dropped down to 22nd after winning 13 contests and losing 22.

Livingston remained fifth overall after the swim, clocking a time of 2:16.90 for 1280 points, taking her total to 3280. Spence climbed six places to 10th overall courtesy of a 2:14.78 swim that earned her 1304 points and a total of 3208 after three disciplines.

Fell was the fastest of the British competitors. Her time of 2:11.02 was the fourth quickest among the 36 competitors, earning 1348 points and pushing her to 14th. Harland’s 2:15.52 was 14th fastest, earning 1296 points, but she remained 36th going into the penultimate discipline, the ride.

Harland collected just eight penalties in the riding arena to score 1192 pentathlon points – the second best performance in the riding. But that was only enough to take her to 33rd overall with one event remaining.

But the other three Brits were now in the top-10 going into the 3km run. Livingston netted 64 penalty points in the riding to remain in fifth place on 4416 points.

Fell was back in the top-10 for the first time since the shooting – she netted just 32 penalties to climb to seventh with 4348 points.

Spence was also still in the hunt. Her 88 penalties gave her 1112 points in the ride, keeping her 10th overall with 4320 points.

Livingston started the cross country run just three seconds off the bronze medal position and produced a strong run to claim a podium place behind France’s Amelie Caze, the defending champion, and Egypt’s Aya Medany, winner of the 2007 World Cup final.

Fell climbed three places in the run, but couldn’t quite catch Livingston, finishing just seven seconds behind her team-mate.

Spence ended the day in 19th, while Harland climbed through the field, before suffering a calf injury, limping across the finish line in 30th.