British number one Mhairi Spence began Olympic year in medal-winning fashion with a silver at the first modern pentathlon World Cup of the season in Charlotte, United States.
The Scot is one of six British women competing for two spots in London and she was in fine form, with only Olympic champion Lena Schoneborn proving too strong for Spence.
She was never out of the top two throughout the fence, swim and ride and had a slender lead going into the final event, the combined run-and-shoot.
That disappeared in the first round of shooting but Spence stayed within touching distance of German Schoneborn throughout and was never challenged for second, with Bulgaria's Anastasiya Prokopenko coming through from 18th to take bronze.
Spence, ranked fourth in the world, said: "I'm really happy, a little overwhelmed. It's been a really good day and it's nice to finish well.
"I've worked really hard and a lot of people at home really believe in me. Last year I had a decent season but I picked up on a couple of things to work on. Today was the day to show that they're right.
"I won silver in Palm Springs last year so I needed to win a medal here to keep my ranking up but I'm aiming for a medal at the World Championships, I'm aiming for a medal at the Olympics, and I'm going to do everything I can to get there."
Fellow British athletes Heather Fell, the Olympic silver medallist from Beijing, and Samantha Murray also performed well, with Murray sixth and Fell also in the top 10.
Copyright (c) Press Association Ltd. 2012, All Rights Reserved.