On a busy day in Sofia on Friday, James Myatt and Sam Curry both made it through to the Senior European Championships Final but Luke Tasker and Tom Toolis unfortunately missed out.
Myatt and Curry, who competed alongside each other in the Men’s relay at the 2015 European Championships in Bath, were both placed in qualifying Group A, starting their day in the fencing salle. 25 year old Myatt finished the discipline in 7th with 14 victories while 22 year old Curry was two hits behind in 17th in a tightly matched group.
In the pool, a strong 2:05.61 swim from Curry lifted him to 13th ahead of the combined event, 1 place and 3 seconds ahead of Myatt after the Maidstone born athlete’s 2:11.53 swim.
Myatt then produced a fantastic combined event, the fastest of the group, to move up to 4th place and comfortably secure an automatic qualifying place for the final. Curry, meanwhile, also produced a strong run-shoot of 12:16.28, but this left him 16th and with a nervy wait to see if he had done enough to qualify. When the second group finished, Curry’s place in the final 36 was confirmed by virtue of his points score.
Meanwhile, the two remaining Brits – Tom Toolis and Luke Tasker – were placed in Qualifying Group B. The duo started their day with the swim, the favoured discipline of both. It showed, as Tasker recorded a great time of 2:01.31, second quickest in both the group and on the day with Toolis narrowly behind with a 2:02.92, leaving him 5th after the opening discipline.
Both Brits then struggled in their fencing, the discipline that would ultimately be their downfall in not qualifying for the final. Toolis recorded 10 victories, dropping him to 17th in the group standings with Tasker’s 9 meaning he started the combined event a place further back in 18th. Despite battling performances in the run-shoot, 23 year old Toolis finished the group 20th with 21 year old Tasker in 25th.
Toolis’ score meant he agonisingly missed out on a place in the final by 1 position after being ranked 37th. As a result, the Romford born athlete will be first reserve for the final which gets underway tomorrow morning.
Meanwhile, the Women’s final started yesterday with the fencing ranking round. Kate French was the top Brit overnight after picking up 23 victories and just 12 defeats to sit 5th after the opening discipline. European Championships debutant Jo Muir is 12th with 18 victories and Samantha Murray 23rd with 15 victories.
The trio will be back today for the culmination of the Women’s final, starting with the swim before the fencing bonus round, ride and combined event.
Report courtesy of Pentathlon GB
