Freyja Prentice, Kate French and Samantha Murray all recorded their best world cup finishes of the season as they claimed top 10 places in Kecskemet, Hungary. Prentice recovered from a tough start to head the team home in 7th with French producing a good all-round performance to finish 8th. Murray overcame stomach problems to finish 9th following concern that she wouldn’t be able to take part in the morning. The team’s fourth member, Francesca Summers, unfortunately had to withdraw halfway through the day with a knee injury.
The final started in the pool where London 2012 silver medallist Murray recorded the quickest time of the final in 2:11.00 to take an early lead. French produced the 15th best time of 2:18.82, slightly ahead of 20th placed Summers’ 2:20.44 and 31st placed Prentice’s 2:26.42.
In the fencing ranking round, French and Summers headed the GB challenge with 19 victories and 16 defeats each, results that placed them 11th and 12th respectively in the discipline. Prentice’s 17 victories saw her pick up 202 modern pentathon points in 22nd with Murray’s 16 victories leaving her in 26th.
This meant Murray was the first Brit to enter the bonus round and she picked up 3 points with victories over Russia’s Anna Buriak, Hungary’s Zsofia Foldhazi and Ukrainian Valeriya Permykina. She was eventually defeated by another Hungarian, Sarolta Kovacs. Prentice was next to return to the piste and defeated both Kovacs and Pole Anna Maliszewska. Summers then suffered the unfortunate injury with put an end to her competition. The current Junior World Champion was placed in 17th position before her withdrawal. French defeated China’s Wanxia Liang to pick up a bonus point of her own.
This left Murray in 7th, French 14th and Prentice 31st ahead of the ride where the three Brits came to the fore. Prentice’s round saw her pick up just 4 time penalties to score 296 points, the best ride of the day. Murray and French both knocked down one pole with two time faults to score 291 and finish joint 3rd in the discipline standings. The strong riding meant all three GB athletes moved themselves up the order ahead of the combined event with Murray starting 2nd, 16 seconds behind the leader, China’s Xiaonan Zhang. French moved up to 5th and started the combined event with a 23 second handicap with Prentice 20th, 52 seconds behind the leader.
A thrilling combined event followed with Prentice’s time of 12:12.30 the second quickest of the day and enough to move her up to 7th overall. The three GB women were separated by the narrowest of margins at the finish with French being awarded the same time as Prentice and 8th place overall with Murray a single second behind her two teammates in 9th.
Performance Director Jan Bartu was pleased with the performances of all four athletes and commentated that he had seen “An overall improvement in all disciplines from all of the athletes”. Bartu was delighted with Prentice’s finish which saw her climb from 20th to 7th in the combined event and French’s “good day throughout”.
The GB performance director explained that Murray had been “suffering serious stomach problems” in the morning and there had been a concern that she would not be able to take part in the final. The difficulties unfortunately meant that Murray “lost physical power and was depleted” by the end of the combined event which contributed to her losing some ground in the final discipline.
The competition was won by Belarussian Anastasiya Propenko with Hungary’s Zsofia Foldhazi in 2nd and France’s Julie Belhamri third.
The men’s final takes place tomorrow (Sunday 17th April) with Jamie Cooke the sole GB representative.
Report courtesy of Pentathlon GB
Photo above of Freya Prentice
