British teenager Freyja Prentice secured an impressive 10th place finish on her Modern Pentathlon World Cup debut in Mexico City.
The 18-year-old was the highest placed finisher of the four British athletes that qualified for the final of the Mexico City World Cup, which reached its climax in the early hours of this morning (Monday).
Prentice finished ahead of six athletes who competed at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.
Her performance came just 24 hours after another British teenager, Steven Mason, had finished 10th in the men’s final also on his World Cup debut.
Prentice and Mason have both progressed through Pentathlon GB’s World Class Development programme.
Prentice returns to action at the Bath International at the University of Bath on Thursday (2nd April), but Mason misses the men’s event on Friday as he is shortly due to undergo surgery on a knee injury.
The Bath International will feature the new combined run/shoot format, which made its World Cup debut in Mexico at the weekend.
Prentice, originally from Aberdeen but now training at the Pentathlon GB high performance centre at the University of Bath, won 18 of her 35 fencing contest for 15th overall after the first discipline.
Team-mates Mhairi Spence, Katy Livingston and Katy Burke were ahead of her after the fencing – Spence won 21 contests for ninth and Livingston won 20 for joint 10th. Katy Burke won 19 bouts for 13th.
Spence produced the fastest swim of the Brits – her 2:19.66 was seventh fastest, while Burke clocked 2:19.86 for eighth, Livingston 2:20.76 for 10th and Prentice 2:26.36 for 19th.
All four of the British pentathletes rode well. Spence produced a clear round with in the allotted time for the maximum 1200 points, putting her in fourth place going into the final discipline, the combined run/shoot.
Livingston also went clear but accumulated 24 time penalties for 1176 points. Prentice scored 1180 points in the riding arena with Burke adding 1160 points to her total.
Prentice produced one of the best run/shoot performances in the field. Her time of 13:31.30 was the sixth best, earning her 2116 points and securing a top-10 finish at her first World Cup.
Spence’s 14:21.32 was 20th and saw her drop down from fourth to a 12th place finish overall. Beijing 2008 Olympian Katy Livingston clocked a time of 14:21.92 to end the first World Cup of the year in 13th, while Burke’s 15:21.53 put her 21st overall.
For further information, please contact Steve Ballinger in the PentathlonGB press office at Matchtight Ltd on 07765 071683 or visit the website www.pentathlongb.org
For further information about the 2009 Modern Pentathlon World Championships, which take place from 13 to 17 August at Crystal Palace in London, please see www.pentathlongb.org/mpwc
