Beijing 2008 Olympic silver medallist Heather Fell, the current world number five, will spearhead the British challenge at the competition, which is being held at Medway Park in Kent.
She is joined in the 12-strong British women’s team by Mhairi Spence, ranked 16th in the world, Freyja Prentice, who is 21st in the world, and Beijing 2008 Olympian Katy Livingston, who is 27th in the world.
Teenager Prentice goes to Medway off the back of a fifth place finish at only the third World Cup of her career in Egypt two weeks ago. Katy Burke, who finished just behind her in sixth, also competes in Medway.
Nick Woodbridge heads the British challenge in the men’s competition. The Beijing 2008 Olympian is currently ranked 26th in the world. But fellow Olympian Sam Weale misses out on Medway through injury.
The British men’s team also includes Jamie Cooke, who turned 19 earlier this month just before competing in his first World Cup in Mexico
There will also be local interest in the shape of Kate French, aged 19, and 18-year-old James Myatt, two members of Pentathlon GB’s World Class Development Programme, who are both from Kent. They are among the British pentathletes experiencing their first taste of World Cup action in Medway.
Jan Bartu, Pentathlon GB’s performance director, said the Medway World Cup will give Britain’s pentathletes an opportunity to compete in front of a home crowd ahead of the London 2012 Olympic Games.
And he said it will also be interesting to see how Britain’s crop of talented youngsters fare going head to head with their more experienced counterparts in only the second season since the introduction of the new climax to the pentathlon, the combined run/shoot.
“One of the benefits of hosting a World Cup is you can put up to 12 athletes of each gender on the starting grid, so Medway will be a great opportunity for British athletes who have not yet had the opportunity to compete on the highest world stage,” said Bartu.
“It is a good opportunity to assess our athletes competing against each other in equal conditions and our aim will be to qualify as many athletes as we can for the final stages.
“From the perspective of a London Games, it’s another great test for athletes on how to handle competing on home soil in front of a home crowd,” he added. “We learned some things from the World Championships in London last year and this is another chapter which brings us closer to the Games.”
The full British team for the Medway World Cup is:
Men Jamie Cooke David Atkinson, Russell North, Steven Mason, Gareth Evans, Robert Flack, James Myatt, Nick Zissler, Simon Taylor, Daniel Worrall, Nick Woodbridge
Women Mhairi Spence, Samantha Murray, Katy Burke, Heather Fell, Louise Helyer, Kate French, Rachael Hares, Amelia Jobling, Katy Livingston, Freyja Prentice, Lydia Rosling, Grace France
The Medway World Cup is the third World Cup of the year. The men’s semi-finals take place on Thursday 8 April and the women’s semis are on Friday 9 April. The men contest their final on Saturday 10 April with the women going into action in their final on Sunday 11 April.
For further details of the Medway World Cup please go to the event website at http://www.pentathlongb.org/mpwc/index.php
