French fries rivals in event to savour
TOP GUN KATE STORMS HOME FOR GOLD
KATE FRENCH brought Britain multi-eventing joy to soften the painful memory of Katarina Johnson-Thompson’s heptathlon heartbreak.
Forty-eight hours after injury wrecked the dream of the luckless Liverpudlian, French stormed to gold in the modern pentathlon.
The Kent star’s event features five disciplines in one day, compared to the seven over two for Johnson-Thompson.
And it was in the last of those, the ‘run and shoot’, that the 30-year-old surged from fifth place to claim glory inside Tokyo Stadium. “I don’t know what just happened, I can’t really believe it right now,” said French.
It brought back memories of Steph Cook winning gold in Sydney 21 years ago when the women’s event was introduced into the Olympics.
French was 15 seconds back after the fencing, swimming and show jumping phases and undoubtedly benefited from German leader Annika Schleu having a complete meltdown on her misbehaving horse.
Sixth in the fencing, French swam 200m in 2mins 10.18secs to remain in contention in eighth. She then went clear in the riding, picking up just six time penalties for a score of 294 out of 300. “I knew I had to focus,” she said. “I knew I could do it if I just focused on my shooting and ran as hard as I could.”
So the story goes, modern pentathlon was devised by Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Games, who wanted to simulate the challenges faced by an infantryman caught behind enemy lines.
French, the reigning world silver medallist, never had any look of fear and desperation on her face even in the 20 minutes she was given to get to know an unfamiliar horse for the riding section.
They made a great team and their clear round set her up for a dash to glory.
Ahead after the first lap, French missed just two of her 22 shots as she pulled away to finish 16 seconds clear of the rest.
Fifth in Rio, this time there was no stopping her. Lithuania’s Laura Asadauskaite took second place and Sarolta Kovacs, of Hungary, was third – but they were a long, long way back.