Reports

Results

Semi Finals

The semi finals were held on thursday 16th November. Two semi finals were run alongside each other. Semi final A was run in 'normal' order, shoot, fence, swim, run. Semi final B was run with the events in the following order - fence, swim, shoot and run.

Competing in semi final B, I was pretty happy with my fencing. I produced some really good moves but I also had some unlucky hits but I was generally pleased with the overall outcome winning 50% of my bouts giving me 832 pentathlon points. I was in equal 9th place going into the swimming event.

The scheduling meant that we had a fairly long break before the swimming. I was in the second fastest heat with a good lane draw. I swam 2.21 which is way off my best but I was fairly happy with it considering the altitude. There was very little time after the swim before the shooting and I arrived at the shooting range with water still in my ears.

With little time to compose my nerves before the shoot began, I had a bit of a shaky start, scoring a few more 8's than I would have like. I kept focused and recovered a little but not enough to make up for the poor start. I finished on a score of 168, my worst of the season. I was absolutely devastated. The results took a while to come through, but I knew it would be difficult to make the top 16 and qualify for the final.

Eventually, the results came through and I was due to start the run in 17th place. The run is a staggered start calculated using the points total achieved after the first 3 events. The first across the line is the winner. The top 16 from each semi qualify for the final so the running event can prove quite exciting for spectators, though quite nerve racking if you're the athletes starting in 17th position!! I was starting 1.28 behind the lead athlete. I was starting amongst some of the best runners in the field, Lada Jienbalanova (KGZ), Paulina Boenisz (POL), Alessia Pieretti (ITA) were starting in 16th, 18th and 19th positions respectively. We set off at a decent pace in pursuit of some of the slower runners ahead. We managed to catch a large group after the first 1km loop. With 2 laps remaining I was in a good position and felt good. At the beginning of the last lap I lost contact with the group and was running in 18th position. I was desperately trying to regain ground on the group but my legs felt extremely heavy and I felt like the fast pace at the start combined with the altitude was beginning to take it's toll. I was not the only one battling with the altitude and I overtook the Italian Pieretti, who I had started with at the beginning. I crossed the line in 17th place, the worst possible position! I was completely devastated and it took a while before I began to feel any better about the result. In reflection, the competition had not quite gone as I would have hoped, but considering the injury I had at the beginning of the season, it was a great achievement just to make the world championship in the first place.

The relay event was held on monday 20th. There were 13 teams competing. Events are run in the same order as the individual event (shoot, fence, swim, ride and run) but are all competed in a relay format. For the shooting, the three athletes shoot 10shots directly after one another. Whilst one is shooting, the other two sit behind in silence waiting for their turn.

It is fairly tense and nervy on the range, luckily I was put in to shoot first. I had a solid shoot (better than the individual) and scored 86. George and Mhairi shot exactly the same score and we ended on a score of 258 giving us exactly 1000points. Many of the other teams had scored similar totals and although we were further down the results sheet than we would have liked it wasn't too much of a problem as the points difference was not so great.

In the fencing, each team fencer the other teams. Athletes are assigned 1, 2 and 3 with all the 1's fencing each other for 3 hits, the 2's fencing the 2's etc... Giving a team total of 9hits.

Competition Results

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