Kate French wins gold for Team GB in modern pentathlon at Tokyo Olympics

Kate French of Team GB crosses the line to win gold in the Laser Run during the Women's Modern Pentathlon (Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)Kate French of Team GB crosses the line to win gold in the Laser Run during the Women's Modern Pentathlon (Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)
Kate French of Team GB crosses the line to win gold in the Laser Run during the Women's Modern Pentathlon (Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)

Kate French has become Team GB’s second Olympic champion in modern pentathlon after a brilliant series of performances in Tokyo.

The Rio Games were the first Olympics since the women’s event was introduced in 2000 that Britain had not won a medal but French made up for that in spectacular fashion, keeping her cool superbly in the final run-and-shoot.

How the modern pentathlon unfolded

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French, from Kent, began the last event in fifth but surged into the lead by the end of the first lap and never looked like letting that go, hitting her targets with her laser gun impeccably, missing just two of her 22 shots.

She performed strongly through the first three events, sitting sixth after the fencing, which was held on Thursday, and then coming eighth with an impressive 200 metres freestyle swim.

French picked up one extra point in the fencing bonus round and was then one of very few riders to go clear in the show jumping, although she did pick up six time penalties.

The final event, the run-and-shoot, sees athletes complete four legs of 800m and four rounds at the range, where they must hit five targets each time.

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The leader goes off first, with each point adrift converted to one second, and the top five were all within 15 seconds, which quickly became academic as French pulled away for a solo victory.

French continues Team GB’s success in event

French follows in the footsteps of Stephanie Cook, who was the first female Olympic champion in Sydney, while Kate Allenby, Georgina Harland, Heather Fell and Samantha Murray have all won medals for Britain.

She finished fifth in Rio and was considered a strong medal prospect having won gold at the World Cup final earlier this year.

Modern pentathlon was devised by Baron Pierre De Coubertin, the founder of the modern Games, who selected the disciplines to simulate the challenges faced by an infantryman caught behind enemy lines.

For the first time at the Olympics, all the disciplines were held in one stadium, with a pool erected at one end of Tokyo Stadium.

A version of this article originally appeared on NationalWorld.com

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