Pentathlon GB’s Kate French, Samantha Murray and Jo Muir finished 7th, 14th and 17th respectively in the Women’s Senior European Championships final in Minsk today including encouraging discipline performances during the day. The trio’s combined score meant they finished 4th in the team competition, narrowly missing out on a team medal by just 9 points.
The day began in the pool with the 200m swim where Clitheroe’s Murray led the British challenge, her time of 2:13.60 placing her 6th in the discipline standings. Dumfries’ Muir shaved over two seconds off her time from Thursday’s qualification round, stopping the clock on 2:17.55 with Gravesend’s French just behind in a time of 2:17.71 meaning all three British athletes were well placed after the opening discipline.
As has been the case at the Under 19 World Championships in Prague, the fencing hall proved to be a decisive location with 26-year-old French performing strongly to record 20 victories and 15 defeats from her 35 bouts. 27-year-old Murray picked up 17 victories and 18 defeats with 22-year-old Muir securing 13 victories. In the bonus round, both Murray and Muir picked up 2 extra points meaning French was the lead Brit in 10th after the opening two disciplines with Murray 15th and Muir 28th.
French, who topped the riding standings on her way to finishing 5th at last year’s Olympics, once again demonstrated her talent in the riding arena with a flawless clear round giving her the maximum 300 points. The high British standard was also maintained by Muir and Murray with the Scot just picking up five time faults for 295 points and Murray just behind on 288.
It meant all three Brits moved up the overall leaderboard with French 6th, Murray 13th and Muir 22nd ahead of the concluding laser run.
A fascinating combined run-shoot developed with the positions in the top 20 changing throughout the 3,200m course. At the event’s conclusion French led the British trio home in 7th, her sixth consecutive top 10 result, with Murray recording her best result of the season in 14th and Muir 17th on her first international appearance since a World Cup career best 10th in Poland in May.
Tomorrow sees the Men’s final taking place with Jamie Cooke, Joe Choong and Tom Toolis competing for Pentathlon GB after qualifying yesterday.
Report courtesy of Pentathlon GB
