LONDON 2012: Great Britain name strong team for World Championships

By Sportsbeat staff

GREAT Britain will take a ten-strong team to next month's modern pentathlon World Championships - where medals are the aim in more way than one.

UPBEAT: PentathlonGB performance director Jan Bartu is upbeat about Great Britain's chances ahead of the World Championship, a vital Olympic qualifier (Getty Images)

Any athlete securing a podium place in the individual events in Rome will secure the Olympic qualifying standard, which so far has only been achieved by Freyja Prentice and Jamie Cooke at last year's European Championships.

Great Britain can take a team of four athletes to London 2012, two men and two women, and should no-one achieve the standard, athletes will then qualify through their world ranking.

And with all seven selected in individual events ranked inside the world's top 25, competition is expected to be intense.

“I think they will be under tremendous pressure at the World Championships,” said team chief Jan Bartu. 

“It looks like it will go down to the wire, but this is the ultimate test for the Olympic Games.

“They need to keep it all together in Rome when they will be competing against other very determined athletes who will also feel the World Championships are their last chance to qualify for the Games.”

Mhairi Spence, who won silver at the opening World Cup of the year in the USA, is the highest ranked Brit in the Olympic pentathlon world ranking list in fifth.

Samantha Murray has stormed up the ranking list to 12th after winning her first World Cup medal, a bronze, in Russia just over a week ago to round off a World Cup campaign that saw her finish fourth and sixth in her other two competitions.

Heather Fell, Beijing 2008 silver medallist and former world number one, is 13th with Freyja Prentice 19th.

Three Brits will contest the men’s competition in Rome. Nick Woodbridge is ninth in the men’s Olympic pentathlon world ranking list. He won bronze at last year’s World Cup Final and has two sixth places finishes in World Cups to his name this season.

He'll be joined by world junior champion Cooke and Beijing 2008 Olympian Sam Weale, a silver medallist at the 2010 European Championships, who is ranked 21st in the world.

In addition, three British athletes – Katy Burke, Kate French and Katy Livingston – have been selected to contest the women’s team relay.

Rome also provides athletes with an penultimate chance to score ranking points, with the final opportunity will be at the World Cup Final in late May. 

© Sportsbeat 2012