Defending champions Joe Choong and Kate French plus Pentathlon GB colleagues Kerenza Bryson and Myles Pillage have today become the latest University of Bath-based athletes to be officially selected by Team GB for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
It will be a third Games apiece for French and fellow Tokyo gold-medallist Choong, who has won two Modern Pentathlon World Championship titles since claiming Olympic gold in record-breaking style in 2021. The duo, who studied Sports Performance and Mathematics at the University respectively, also competed at Rio 2016.
Kerenza Bryson (Photo: Nic Delves-Broughton)
Making their Olympic debuts are Bryson, who set the Paris qualification standard by winning bronze when Bath hosted the UIPM World Championships last summer, and fellow Plymouth-born pentathlete Pillage, who studied Biochemistry at the University and this month achieved a top-10 finish at the 2024 World Championships in China.
The quartet all train at the Team Bath Sports Training Village which has been home to Pentathlon GB’s National Training Centre since 1998. During that time seven athletes have gone on to win medals at the Olympic Games – Steph Cook (gold) and Kate Allenby (bronze) at Sydney 2000, Georgina Harland (bronze) at Athens 2004, Heather Fell (silver) at Beijing 2008, Samantha Murray (silver) at London 2012, and Choong and Kate French (both gold) at Tokyo 2020.
Several of those athletes combined their sport with studying at the University – Murray and Choong were both supported by sporting scholarships while pursuing their dual careers, as was Pillage.
Harland is now Performance Director of Pentathlon GB and said: “It is fantastic to be able to formally announce these athletes today, it will be a proud moment for them all. The decision the selection panel had to make was a difficult one. However, we know this squad going to the Games has fantastic medal potential and we look forward to doing all we can to support them in realising their ambitions.”
Team GB Chef de Mission Mark England added: “We are very proud to welcome back defending Olympic Champions Joe and Kate to Team GB for Paris 2024. Their exceptional performances at Tokyo 2020 were wonderful to watch during what was a record-breaking Games for the modern pentathlon team. Alongside Myles and Kerenza, who both will make their Olympic debuts this summer for Team GB, we are excited at what awaits this extremely talented team in Paris.”
The modern pentathlon finals in Paris will take place on the final weekend of the Games, with the men going for gold on Saturday 10th August and the women on Sunday 11th.
Today’s selections mean that 13 athletes who train, study or represent the University of Bath have now been picked for Paris by Team GB. The pentathletes join swimmers Freya Anderson, Kieran Bird, Leah Crisp, Tom Dean, Ben Proud and Jacob Whittle, artistic swimmer Kate Shortman, rower Becky Wilde and rugby 7s player Grace Crompton on the Eurostar.
Follow Bath-based athletes on their journey to Paris at teambath.com/Paris2024.
With thanks to Team Bath
