Kate French claimed silver for the second year running at the Modern Pentathlon European Championships as she clinched another Olympic quota spot for Team GB.
French adds a Tokyo qualification spot to the one secured by Jamie Cooke in the men’s final 24 hours earlier and another acquired by Joe Choong after winning the Modern Pentathlon Union World Cup final in Japan earlier in the summer.
She went into the laser-run in second at the University of Bath and took the lead after the second visit to the shooting range before eventually being hunted down by London 2012 Olympic champion Laura Asadauskaite midway round the third lap.
“I’m over the moon with second place,” said French.
“I had to really fight, nothing came easy. I had a really good ride, which I was so pleased with and that put me in a good position for the final event.
“I just had to hold on – I had Laura chasing me down. I did try and stay with her but she’s so fast.”
Meanwhile, Jo Muir finished just outside the medals after producing a storming run-shoot to climb from 14th to fourth with Francesca Summers’ sealing a seventh-place finish, helping secure team gold for the host nation as well.
“I knew the laser-run was my strongest and I was really trying to catch the podium position,” said Muir.
“I’m a bit disappointed with my shoot but the last round made up for it.
“It was amazing and Kate was amazing all day, she’s such an inspiration, it’s really cool to be trying to follow in her footsteps and have her as a team-mate to push each other on.”
The women’s final brought to a close a brilliant week of competition at the University of Bath with Britain winning five gold medals in addition to French’s silver.