Samantha Murray helped Britain’s women to team relay gold on day one of the Modern Pentathlon European Championships and she’ll be calmness personified because of it according to British coach Istvan Nemeth.
Olympic silver medallist from London 2012 Murray joined forces with Kate French and Katy Burke as the European Championships got underway in Poland with the women’s team relay with the three leading from start to finish for gold.
The British trio won 32 of their fencing bouts, losing 22, for first alongside Belarus and led outright after the swimming relay before third in the ride further cemented their place at the top of the standings.
They dropped 120 points from the maximum 1200 for a 19-second lead over Belarus, back up to second, and then clocked a combined run-shoot time of 18:53.47minutes for gold with Burke passing to Murray and French finishing off.
Hosts Poland claimed silver with Germany taking bronze as Britain’s women improved on their third-place finish from last year’s Europeans with Murray and French now set for individual action and the men’s relay team up next.
And Pentathlon GB women’s head coach Nemeth said: “We were always in the lead from the start of the day, so we couldn’t really have done any better than this.
“Everybody is happy. Kate and Samantha are also competing in the individual competition and they will be able to go into that in a relaxed state of mind.”
© Sportsbeat 2013