Georgina Mitchell claimed the first individual international medal of her career as she stormed to gold at the Jury Horishko Memorial in Kyrgyzstan this weekend. The 16-year-old’s success was backed up by strong performances from all of the British contingent in Bishkek as fellow Plymouth College athlete Annabel Denton finished 7th whilst Yorkshire Pentathlon’s Toby Price finished 10th in the boys’ event.
It was a terrific effort from all three British athletes in extremely tough and unaccustomed conditions with basic facilities and the laser run being held in sub-zero temperatures in the Kyrgyzstani capital.
The competition, run over two days, began with the swimming and fencing. In the girls’ competition, Mitchell opened with a time of 2:17.64 for her 200m swim with Denton stopping the clock in 2:24.72.
The duo then moved to the fencing hall where Mitchell continued her fine 2017 form by recording 18 victories and 12 defeats from her 30 bouts, placing her 4th in the discipline standings. Meanwhile Denton, competing in just her 4th international competition and one of the youngest athletes in the field, recorded 13 victories from her 30 bouts.
It meant that Mitchell sat in 3rd with Denton 9th after the opening two disciplines and both well placed overnight. A thrilling laser run followed on the second day with Mitchell overtaking the two athletes ahead of her before holding off the challenges of Egypt’s Mariam Amer and Kazakhstan’s Sofya Prizhennikova to take a stunning gold medal.
Like her older teammate, Denton also performed strongly in the final discipline, maintaining her form from last weekend’s British Modern Triathlon Championships to record the fifth quickest time in the laser run and move up to 7th place at the competition’s conclusion.
In the boys’ event, Price opened his competition with a time of 2:11.45 in the pool before recording a positive fence of 20 victories and 18 defeats. It meant the North Yorkshire athlete was in 9th position after the opening day of the competition.
Price, who has performed well all season in the laser run, produced another strong performance in the final discipline of the competition, his time of 12:04 eighth quickest of the day and seeing him cross the line in 10th, his first top 10 international finish of the year.
Pentathlon GB’s Pathway Manager Stuart Mason commented “It has been a long youth international season but our patience and resilience has paid off with a tough international podium position today. My congratulations go to the whole team throughout the season and we look forward to Olympic Hopes later this month.”
The event provides valuable Youth Olympic Games World Ranking points for the British trio as the road to Buenos Aires 2018 continues.
Report courtesy of Pentathlon GB
