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Other Sports - 24. July 2013.

Spence bids to defend title as British team prepare to take on the world



Britain¹s Mhairi Spence gets the opportunity to defend her World
Championship crown when she competes at the most important modern pentathlon
competition since the London 2012 Olympics next month.

Spence won the title in Rome in May of last year and is today named in the
GB team to contest the 2013 World Championships in Kaohsiung, Chinese
Taipei, from 21 to 27 August.

The 2012 championships were held earlier in the year than usual because of
the Olympics, so Spence has had the privilege of reigning as world champion
for just over 15 months.

³I was really proud to win the World Championships last year,² she said. ³I
finally achieved what I knew I could do. It¹s nice when you know you¹re the
best in the world at something, not everyone gets to be a world champion.

³The World Championships have a big meaning for me, because it was also my
first individual gold medal,² she added. ³I don't think it puts any more
pressure on me this time around though. I always go to competitions wanting
to do the best I can and wanting to get on the podium.²

Spence, now ranked 10th in the world, is joined in the British team
Kaohsiung by another 2012 World Championships individual medallist, Samantha
Murray, currently ranked nine in the world.

Murray¹s bronze last year was enough to secure her a place on the British
team for the London 2012 Olympics, where she won the silver medal, Britain¹s
last medal of the Games.

Kate French and Freyja Prentice also feature in the GB women¹s team for
Kaohsiung. Prentice was the highest placed GB woman at this month¹s European
Championships finishing fourth at her first major competition back from a
lengthy spell on the sidelines through injury.

French finished 10th in the individual competition at the Europeans and
partnered Spence and Murray to gold in the team event. She won another gold
in the women¹s relay with Murray and Katy Burke. Burke is non-travelling
reserve for the women¹s team for the World Championships.

Jamie Cooke, Britain¹s 2011 world junior champion who won his first World
Cup gold medal in Hungary in May, is confirmed for the men¹s team along with
double Olympian Sam Weale.

Joe Evans, the 19-year-old who won bronze at his first World Cup in the USA
in February, has qualified for the team through the Pentathlon GB ranking
list.  He will make his senior World Championships debut if he is fit and
healthy after next week¹s World Junior Championships in Szekesfehervar,
Hungary.

Double Olympian Woodbridge will be assessed midway through the forthcoming
two-week training camp at altitude at Font Romeu in the French Pyrenees to
see if he has sufficiently recovered from injury to contest the
championships.

Nineteen-year-old Sam Curry is non-travelling reserve.

The Britain train at the Pentathlon GB High Performance Centre at the
University of Bath. The University today announced a strengthened
partnership with Pentathlon GB. A separate release has been issued on this
entitled Unique partnership strengthens University¹s sporting reputation

GB athletes competing at the World Championships
(Name ­ date of birth, from ­ lives)

Women

Kate French  - 11.02.91, Meopham, Gravesend - Bath
Samantha Murray ­ 25.09.90, Clitheroe, Lancashire - Bath
Freyja Prentice -  20.05.90 ­ Inverurie near Aberdeen - Bath
Mhairi Spence ­ 31.08.85, Farr, near Inverness - Bath

Non-travelling reserve
Katy Burke ­ 01.06,89, Cleveleys, near Blackpool - Bath
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