Great Britain claim team silver at World Championships in Chengdu

HEATHER Fell was Great Britain's highest place finisher in eighth at the World Championships in Chengdu, China but there was a sizeable silver lining in the team competition.

PICK OF THE BUNCH: Heather Fell is the top British finisher at the World Championships in Chengdu, China

Fell, an Olympic silver medallist, was the pick of the Brits while 20-year-olds Freyja Prentice and Samantha Murray came home ninth and 22nd respectively.

That was good enough to claim team silver as Amelie Caze claimed her third world title and helped France to team gold.

 Individual silver went to Donata Rimsaite of Lithuania while Germany's Lena Schoneborn took bronze and helped her country to team bronze in the process.

Prentice produced the third fastest run/shoot of the day, climbing from 16th going into the final discipline to end the day in a creditable ninth.

Britain went into the run/shoot in second place in the team competition, 292 points behind France and only four seconds ahead of Hungary, but produced solid performances to secure team silver.

Fell led the British challenge from the start and was eighth after the fencing with 19 wins and 15 defeats. Prentice won 15 of her 34 fencing contests for 19th place, while Murray's 14 wins put her 22nd.

Murray climbed up to 16th with the fifth fastest swimming time, 2:14.41. Fell continued to lead the British challenge with 2:18.11, climbing a place to seventh overall, while Prentice's 2:21.57 saw her drop to 23rd.

Fell dropped 74 points from the perfect 1200 in a riding arena in which none of the 35 athletes went clear in the allotted time. Fell still remained seventh overall going into the run/shoot.

Prentice had four fences down to add another 1120 points to her total, promoting her to 16th going into the run/shoot, while Murray took 1044 from the ride, making her 19th.

Fell climbed to fourth place after the first shooting element of the run/shoot, but had a disappointing second shoot and ended the day in eighth. Prentice's time of 12:20.61 saw her climb fro 16th place to cross the line just behind Fell in ninth, while Murray dropped three place to finish 22nd.