Kate French admitted her delight at her sixth place finish at the Modern Pentathlon World Championships, but was left wondering what might have been after a disappointing performance on the shooting range.
The 26-year-old, who finished fifth at the Olympic Games in Rio last year, started strongly in Cairo and sat eighth after the first two disciplines, fencing and swimming, with 21 victories from her 35 bouts on the piste.
French delivered impressively in the horseriding with just a single knockdown and moved into fifth, before dropping down one spot after the combined running and shooting course.
But while frustrated not to have finished higher than expected, French insists she must focus on the positives from her performance.
"I was disappointed with my shooting as it's normally much better than it was but that's the nature of pentathlon,” she said.
"Overall I am happy with sixth position, it's my best World Championships finish, and much better than I have managed at this competition in the last few years.
"Except from the shooting, everything went fairly smoothly with my competition, starting with the fencing yesterday.
"As expected, the conditions were really tough in the heat.
"Fortunately the ride and laser run were later in the day when it was a little cooler but it was still very humid and running on sand is always harder than on the track or grass that most competitions take place on.
"Despite the slight disappointment of the final discipline, I'm so chuffed with my season overall.
"I haven't finished outside the top seven all year which is such a pleasing achievement as being consistent in this sport is so hard."
Elsewhere in Cairo, fellow Olympian Joe Choong produced a superb display to also finish sixth, with Tom Toolis finishing 20th in his first ever World Championship final.
As he did in Brazil last summer, Choong propelled himself into contention for a strong finish with 22 victories and 13 defeats on the fencing piste, leaving him in fourth place overnight.
In the pool, Choong set the standard to beat with a time of 2:00.87, two seconds quicker than his qualifying time to move up to third in the standings.
But drama followed in the horseriding arena, Choong falling off his horse before remounting and going on to score 257 points, and he followed it up with the sixth quickest laser run of the day.
"I'm really pleased with how I finished the day to place sixth," said Choong.
"I was absolutely gutted with my ride but at least I had the chance to fix it with one of my best laser run afterwards."
There was disappointment, however, for Jamie Cooke and Sam Curry, as well as Sam Murray, Frankie Summers and Jo Muir, as they failed to reach the finals in Egypt.
Sportsbeat 2017