Pentathlon GB today (Wednesday) named a strong British team to compete at the Modern Pentathlon European Championships in Germany later this month.
The team includes Beijing 2008 Olympians Heather Fell and Katy Livingston.
The European Championships take place in Leipzig from 25 to 30 June and are the last opportunity for athletes to impress at a major senior international event ahead of the World Championships at Crystal Palace in London from 13 to 17 August.
“It’s a significant competition for us because of the traditional strength of our sport in Europe,” said Pentathlon GB Performance Director Jan Bartu.
The event will be the first European Championships to feature the new combined run/shoot, which replaced the two separate shooting and running disciplines at the start of this year.
“There’s still a lot of work to do on the new format and we are still developing individual athletes’ skills,” added Bartu. “There will have been a month between the last World Cup and the European Championships so this will also be a benchmarking competition for us leading up to the World Championships.
“As much as we’d like success in Leipzig, we’d trade it for success at the London World Championships in August, which is the biggest competition of the year for us,” he added.
Mhairi Spence and Louise Helyer join Fell and Livingston in the women’s team.
Great Britain has a strong track record at recent European Championships – Mhairi Spence won the individual bronze medal in 2006 and Heather Fell won silver in 2007. Fell just missed out on the medals in fifth last year.
Teenager Freyja Prentice will miss the European Championships to concentrate on the World Junior Championships in Taipei at the start of July.
The female British team for the 2009 European Championships is:
Heather Fell
Louise Helyer
Katy Livingston
Mhairi Spence
The format for the championships is:
Thursday 25 June: women’s qualifiers
Friday 26 June: men’s qualifiers
Saturday 27 June: women’s final (incl team competition)
Sunday 28 June: men’s final (incl team competition)
Monday 29 June: women’s team relay
Tuesday 30 June: men’s team relay
