Britain’s Freyja Prentice followed team-mate Jamie Cooke by achieving the London 2012 Olympic qualifying standard at the Modern Pentathlon European Championships today (Sunday).
Twenty-one-year-old Prentice produced a battling run/shoot to climb from 12th place to eighth to achieve the qualifying standard at Medway Park in Kent.
She became the second British pentathlete to achieve the standard following 20-year-old Cooke’s fourth place in the men’s competition yesterday (Saturday).
Prentice proved the best of the quartet of Brits who were competing for a top-eight finish in the women’s competition at the Europeans.
“I’m so happy,” said Prentice, who went into the championships as world junior number one. “The pressure on the British girls to get those places has been immense.
“I let myself down in the ride today and my shooting didn’t help, but my running saved the day.”
Prentice, who combines training with studying for a Biology degree at the University of Bath, was locked in battle with the Russian pair of Ekaterina Khuraskina and Evdokia Gretchichnikova for eighth place throughout the run/shoot.
But she made sure of eighth on the final run, finishing two seconds ahead of Khuraskina and 13 seconds clear of Gretchichnikova.
A top-eight finish achieved the 2012 qualifying standard – although a ninth place also became available when Lena Schoneborn took gold – she has already qualified by winning the World Cup Final in London three weeks ago.
Prentice said the British crowd played a major role in helping her to eighth. “They were immense,” she said. “The roar I got spurred me on so much. It was a race for eighth place and the crowd helped me so much on the last lap, so I’d like to thank them.
“Everyone is congratulating me, but there are a lot of competitions left and with the standard of our girls we could absolutely do well at the world championships. I know I’m going in the right direction though.”
Fellow Brit Heather Fell battled her way up from 28th to end the day in 23rd, while team-mates Katy Burke and Mhairi Spence finished 28th and 33rd respectively.
Jan Bartu, Pentathlon GB Performance Director, said: “Freyja is focussed, motivated and talented and she has proved she can compete in the big competitions. It was nice to have a happy ending.”
He said the team will learn from the experience of the European Championships and then prepare to compete again at the World Championships in Moscow in September, where the top-three finishers achieve the 2012 qualifying standard.
“We said at the beginning of the season that this would be the ultimate task for us and I can’t imagine it will be any easier in London next year,” he said.
“The girls need to look at themselves objectively. We need to have a good debrief and move on. It’s a learning experience. From now on we have to try to qualify more athletes, that’s our objective.”
Although Prentice and Cooke have achieved the London 2012 qualifying standard, it doesn’t guarantee them places at 2012. A maximum of two athletes per gender per country can compete in the modern pentathlon competition at the London 2012 Games and the qualification period runs up to June 2012.
Prentice led the way for the Brits in the fencing. The 21-year-old Scot won 20 of her 35 bouts to start the day in joint seventh place.
Team-mate Katy Burke also fenced well, winning 18 contest to go to the swim in joint 13th. Spence was 23rd, winning 15 bouts, while Fell was 29th with 14 wins.
Burke produced another strong swim – with a time of 2:08.37 – to climb to fifth place overall.
Prentice clocked a personal best of 2:16.30 – 0.41 seconds better than the old pb she set in Friday’s semis. She climbed to 10th overall.
Spence also bounced back. She showed grit and determination to take one and a half seconds off her personal best, clocking 2:11.92. Swimming in the fourth heat – her time was quicker than every swimmer in the following heat that featured swimmers with faster qualification times.
Fell also swam well. Her time of 2:12.15 was the seventh fastest in the final and saw her climb to 21st overall.
On a day when four athletes went clear in the riding arena within the allotted time, Prentice was the best of the Brits.
Riding Lady, a five-year-old bay mare, she had five fences down to drop 100 points from the 1200-point riding maximum. That meant she went into the run/shoot in 12th place, a minute and 19 seconds behind race leader Adrienn Toth of Hungary and just 11 seconds off eighth place.
Burke dropped 272 points from the maximum riding Roscombe Stan, an eight-year-old piebald stallion. She went into the run/shoot in 26th place, a minute and 51 seconds off the lead.
Fell collected 120 riding penalties on Tonka Boy, a six-year-old grey gelding, and also accumulated time penalties to add 1020 points to her total. That put her 28th, two minutes and three seconds off the lead.
Spence went into the run/shoot in 31st, two minutes and 23 seconds behind the leader, after dropping 288 points from the maximum in the riding arena on board Pleasure Trip, an eight-year-old chestnut mare.
Some of the athletes will return to action tomorrow (Monday) when more medals are up for grabs at the men’s and women’s team relay competitions.
European Championships results
Women’s individual competition
Gold: Lena Schoneborn (GER) – 5600 pts
Silver: Adrienn Toth (HUN) – 5548 pts
Bronze: Victoria Tereshuk (UKR) – 5536 pts
8th: Freyja Prentice (GBR) – 5436 pts
23rd: Heather Fell (GBR) – 5100 pts
28th: Katy Burke (GBR) – 5040 pts
33rd: Mhairi Spence (GBR) – 4812 pts
Women’s team competition
Gold: Hungary
Silver: Germany
Bronze: France
4th: Great Britain
