Spence bids to defend title as British team prepare to take on the world

Britain’s Mhairi Spence gets the opportunity to defend her World Championship crown when she competes at the most important modern pentathlon competition since the London 2012 Olympics next month.

Spence won the title in Rome in May of last year and is today named in the GB team to contest the 2013 World Championships in Kaohsiung, Chinese Taipei, from 21 to 27 August.

The 2012 championships were held earlier in the year than usual because of the Olympics, so Spence has had the privilege of reigning as world champion for just over 15 months.

“I was really proud to win the World Championships last year,” she said. “I finally achieved what I knew I could do. It’s nice when you know you’re the best in the world at something, not everyone gets to be a world champion.

“The World Championships have a big meaning for me, because it was also my first individual gold medal,” she added. “I don't think it puts any more pressure on me this time around though. I always go to competitions wanting to do the best I can and wanting to get on the podium.”

Spence, now ranked 10th in the world, is joined in the British team Kaohsiung by another 2012 World Championships individual medallist, Samantha Murray, currently ranked nine in the world.

Murray’s bronze last year was enough to secure her a place on the British team for the London 2012 Olympics, where she won the silver medal, Britain’s last medal of the Games.

Kate French and Freyja Prentice also feature in the GB women’s team for Kaohsiung. Prentice was the highest placed GB woman at this month’s European Championships finishing fourth at her first major competition back from a lengthy spell on the sidelines through injury.

French finished 10th in the individual competition at the Europeans and partnered Spence and Murray to gold in the team event. She won another gold in the women’s relay with Murray and Katy Burke. Burke is non-travelling reserve for the women’s team for the World Championships.

Jamie Cooke, Britain’s 2011 world junior champion who won his first World Cup gold medal in Hungary in May, is confirmed for the men’s team along with double Olympian Sam Weale.

Joe Evans, the 19-year-old who won bronze at his first World Cup in the USA in February, has qualified for the team through the Pentathlon GB ranking list.  He will make his senior World Championships debut if he is fit and healthy after next week’s World Junior Championships in Szekesfehervar, Hungary.

Double Olympian Woodbridge will be assessed midway through the forthcoming two-week training camp at altitude at Font Romeu in the French Pyrenees to see if he has sufficiently recovered from injury to contest the championships.

Nineteen-year-old Sam Curry is non-travelling reserve.

The Britain train at the Pentathlon GB High Performance Centre at the University of Bath. The University today announced a strengthened partnership with Pentathlon GB. A separate release has been issued on this entitled Unique partnership strengthens University’s sporting reputation

GB athletes competing at the World Championships(Name – date of birth, from – lives)

Women

Kate French  - 11.02.91, Meopham, Gravesend - Bath
Samantha Murray – 25.09.90, Clitheroe, Lancashire - Bath
Freyja Prentice -  20.05.90 – Inverurie near Aberdeen - Bath
Mhairi Spence – 31.08.85, Farr, near Inverness - Bath

Non-travelling reserve
Katy Burke – 01.06,89, Cleveleys, near Blackpool - Bath

Men
Selected
Jamie Cooke  - 03.03.91, Cheltenham – Bath
Joe Evans *  - 05.09.93,  Whitchurch, Shropshire – Bath
Sam Weale – 09.02.82, East Coker near Yeovil, Somerset

*subject to being fit & healthy after World Junior Championships

Fitness to be assessed at Font Romeu
Nick Woodbridge – 01.07.86, Telford, Shropshire - Bath

Non-travelling reserve
Sam Curry – 03.09.93, Redhill - Bath

Women

Kate French  - 11.02.91, Meopham, Gravesend - Bath
Samantha Murray – 25.09.90, Clitheroe, Lancashire - Bath
Freyja Prentice -  20.05.90 – Inverurie near Aberdeen - Bath
Mhairi Spence – 31.08.85, Farr, near Inverness - Bath

Non-travelling reserve
Katy Burke – 01.06,89, Cleveleys, near Blackpool - Bath

Senior British medals in 2013World Cup 1: bronze – Joe Evans, Palm Springs, USA, February

World Cup 4: gold – Jamie Cooke, Budapest, Hungary, May
            bronze – Mhairi Spence, Budapest, Hungary, May

European Championships: gold – women’s team relay (Katy Burke, Kate French    & Samantha Murray) Drzonkow, Poland, July
            gold – women’s team (Kate French, Samantha Murray & Mhairi Spence) Drzonkow, Poland, July
                                                bronze – men’s team relay (Jamie Cooke, Sam Curry & Joe Evans) Drzonkow, Poland, July

2013 World Championships schedule
Wednesday 21 August: Women’s individual qualification
Thursday 22 August: Men’s individual qualification
Friday 23 August: Women’s individual & team final
Saturday 24 August: Women’s individual & team final
Sunday 25 August: Mixed relay
Monday 26 August: Women’s relay
Tuesday 27 August: Men’s relay

Pentathlon GB is the National Governing Body for the Olympic Sport of Modern Pentathlon. For further information please see www.pentathlongb.org <http://www.pentathlongb.org/> 
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The modern pentathlon sees athletes tackle fencing, swimming, show jumping and a run/shoot all in one day.

Great Britain's women have collected an impressive haul of five modern pentathlon medals from the last four Olympic Games, with Steph Cook winning gold at Sydney 2000 and Kate Allenby bronze, Georgina Harland taking bronze at Athens in 2004, Heather Fell winning silver at Beijing in 2008 and Samantha Murray taking silver at London last year.