A brilliant combined event by James Myatt saw him finish 10th and record Pentathlon GB’s third individual top 10 of the week at the Senior Modern Pentathlon European Championships with teammate Sam Curry finishing 19th on the final day of competition in Sofia.
Having qualified on Friday, Myatt and Curry started the final yesterday with the fencing ranking round. 22 year old Curry recorded 19 victories and 16 defeats, leaving him in a tie for 9th overnight with 25 year old Myatt’s 17 victories meaning he finished the opening discipline joint 20th in a tightly bunched field.
The second day of the final started with the 200m swim, Curry producing a fantastic time of 2:03.93 to sit in solo 9th after two disciplines. Myatt’s 2:11.16 left him in 27th before he secured two extra points with two victories in the fencing bonus round. Curry lost his opening bout meaning he didn’t add to his score.
2 knockdowns in the ride from Salfords’ Curry meant he picked up 286 points and started the combined event 8th with Maidstone’s Myatt knocking down just a single pole to move up to 22nd heading into the final event.
In hot conditions in the Bulgarian capital, a fantastic run-shoot of 11:30.11 from Myatt, 6th quickest of the day, moved him up to 10th in the overall standings with Curry just 18 seconds but 9 places behind his British teammate at the line.
Czech athlete Jan Kuf won gold with Hungary’s Robert Kasza 2nd and Italian Riccardo De Luca 3rd after a blistering combined event.
The men’s individual final brings the competition to its close, the final senior modern pentathlon event before the 2016 Olympic Games.
The women’s team of Joanna Muir, Kate French and Samantha Murray claimed team silver in the women’s competition yesterday after finishing 5th, 10th and 17th individually.
In the relays, Team GB 2016 Olympians Jamie Cooke and Joe Choong agonisingly missed out on a podium position by a single second in the Men’s relay with Jo Muir and Georgia Pipes 7th in the Women’s Relay and Pipes and James Myatt 8th in the Mixed Relay.
Report courtesy of Pentathlon GB
