GB’s Francesca Summers finishes 22nd in the women’s final of the first modern pentathlon World Cup in what was the “most difficult and demanding” performance of her career so far.
The 20-year-old, originally from Dorking, performed consistently throughout the day, in what were difficult conditions in Cairo’s International Stadium.
Pentathlon GB’s Performance Director Jan Bartu said: “It was a very tough day today, everyone is fighting for Olympic ranking points and you could really see that in their performances. There was no separating the nations as everyone was at the top of their game.
“You could see this in the qualification round as well. The competition was much harder than usual and Joanna Muir was very disappointed to not get a place in the final.”
Current Junior World Champion Summers started off the five discipline event in the pool, but was unable to match her qualification swim time finishing the 200m distance in 2:21.37. She went on to secure 18 victories in the fencing salle before scoring the maximum haul of 300 points in the riding arena after going clear on her allotted horse One Half. Summers went into the combined event in 17th place, 48 seconds behind table leader Lena Shoneborn.
Bartu said: “Francesca performed extremely well in tough conditions; her fencing was good and she went clear in the ride which was fantastic. She was two seconds down on her qualification swim time and when she came out of the pool she said she could still feel the aches and pains of the qualification round but any Rio qualification ranking points she has accrued today will be extremely valuable.
“She should be very happy with her performance; this has definitely been the most demanding and difficult performance of her career to date and it has been a massive learning experience for her. It’s great to have a young athlete like Francesca coming through the ranks who is so ambitious and hardworking.”
The gold medal went to current World Champion Lena Shoneborn, who looks set to be a strong contender at Rio, with her teammate Annika Schleu taking the silver medal and France’s Elodie Clouvel rounding out the top three.
Report courtesy of Pentathlon GB
