Britain Win's Gold in the Junior European Women's Relay
Britain’s young modern pentathletes are celebrating striking gold on the opening day of the European Junior Championships in Poland.
The trio of Kate French, Freyja Prentice and Lydia Rosling won gold in the women’s team relay in Drzonkow on Monday.
The Brits beat a strong Hungarian team into second place by nine seconds to retain the title they won in Portugal last year. Poland held on to grab bronze.
The GB team had gone into the final discipline, the run/shoot, in third place 23 seconds behind Russia and 19 seconds off Hungary.
But French shot solidly and just overtook the Russians at the end of her running leg, Rosling closed the gap on the Hungarians in second spot and then world junior number four Prentice overtook Hungary’s Adrienn Toth on the final run leg to secure gold.
The British trio’s run/shoot time of 23:48.26 was only bettered by just over a second by the Polish team, who climbed from fifth to third.
Rosling, originally from near Taunton in Somerset, but now training at the Pentathlon GB High Performance Centre at the University of Bath, said: “There were only five teams competing in the relay, but they were all really strong, so we knew it wasn’t going to be easy.
“Freyja has been on fire this year. She closed the gap on the first lap of her run and then overtook the leader on the second,” she added. “We were hoping for a medal finish, but we were over the moon with gold.”
The GB team made a strong start to the relay, finishing second to the Russians in the fencing, but dropped down to third after the swim, with Russia leading from Hungary.
A good performance in the riding arena saw Great Britain stay in the medal zone in third place, with Russia and Hungary still in first and second places. The GB trio had just one fence down in the ride, equalling the Hungarians’ performances before that dramatic finish in the run/shoot.
