Britain’s London 2012 Olympic silver medallist Samantha Murray just missed out on the medals in her first Modern Pentathlon World Cup of the year, coming home in fifth place in Rio de Janeiro today (Friday).
Murray had gone into the run/shoot on top of the leaderboard, but her lead was whittled away by Margaux Isaksen, the USA’s world junior champion, on the second shoot and the American went on to take gold. Olympic champion Laura Asadauskaite from Lithuania climbed from seventh to take silver.
Murray, who said ahead of the run/shoot that she was targeting a top-10 finish on her return to action after London 2012, dropped out of contention for the medals but was able to make sure of fifth. Team-mate Kate French came home 14th with Katy Burke 28th and Mhairi Spence 33rd.
Earlier in the day Murray had produced a strong finish to the fencing to end with 21 wins from 35 bouts, putting her in sixth place with 904 points. Fellow Olympian Spence also fenced well. She won 20 of her contests to put her eighth overall with 880 points.
Burke and French both found themselves just outside the top-10. The pair won 19 bouts each, putting them joint 11th and starting their campaigns with 856 points.
The action then moved on to the pool, where Murray produced another strong performance to climb to second place overall.
Murray’s 200m freestyle time of 2:11.98 was the fourth quickest of the day and saw her go to the riding arena just eight pentathlon points behind Poland’s Oktawia Nowacka.
Burke also swam well. Her 2:14.80 was the ninth fastest of the day and earned 1184 points, promoting her to sixth place overall.
Spence stayed in the top-10 courtesy of a swim of 2:18.26, the 15th fastest of the day. It added 1144 points to her total, putting her ninth. French’s 2:20.22 was the 20th fastest earning 1120 points. That saw her go to the riding arena still in the top half of the field, in 17th.
French was the first of the Brits up in the ride. Riding Cinderella, she had two fences down early on to lose 80 points from the maximum 1200.
Spence, riding Lamaro, had seven fences down to add 920 points to her score. Burke, on board Lindaura, had thee fences down, adding 1080 of the maximum 1200 to her total.
Despite an early refusal on Janone, Murray then got her horse going well around the course without incurring any further penalties, adding 1060 points to her total.
Leader Nowacka lost 200 points from the maximum to drop down to fourth on a day when only two athletes – Brazil’s Priscila Oliveira and Isaksen of the USA – went clear in the allowed time to bag the maximum 1200 points.
That meant Murray went into the combined event at the head of the leaderboard. She started the run/shoot 34 seconds clear of Oliveira and with a 36-second advantage over Isaksen.
Burke went into the run/shoot in fifth, 41 seconds behind Murray, with French joint 11th, 57 seconds off Murray and Spence in 20th, a minute and 25 seconds off the lead.
Murray hit the five targets in six shots on her opening visit to the shooting range, but couldn’t match that next time and Isaksen went into the lead on the third shoot.
Murray clocked 13:56.40 for the run shoot, with French’s 13:49.20 the best by the Brits. Burke completed the run/shoot in 15:39.20 and Spence in 15:31.40.
Tomorrow (Saturday) Joe Evans and Nick Woodbridge will contest the men’s final. Evans is hoping to follow his success on his World Cup debut in California a month ago, when he won the bronze medal.
Woodbridge, who represented Great Britain at the Beijing 2008 and London 2012 Olympic Games, is contesting his first World Cup of the year
World Cup 2 women’s final results Gold: Margaux Isaksen (USA) – 5268 points Silver: Laura Asadauskaite (LTU) – 5224 points Bronze: Zsofia Foldhazi (HUN) – 5176 points 5th: Samantha Murray (GBR) – 5140 points 14th: Kate French (GBR) – 4940 points 28th: Katy Burke (GBR) – 4564 points 33rd: Mhairi Spence (GBR) – 4420 points
