It's Moscow woe for Sam

There was disappointment for Samantha Murray after finishing 16th at the Modern Pentathlon World Championships in Moscow.
Samantha MurraySamantha Murray
Samantha Murray

Clitheroe’s former world champion was well placed early on but saw her challenge ultimately fade and must now wait until the team announcement on June 8 to see if she is heading to this summer’s Olympics in Rio.

The final started in the swimming pool where Murray recorded an impressive time of 2:08.40, the third quickest of the day and more than 1.5 seconds quicker than her semi-final time.

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The finalists then all moved to the fencing salle where Murray and GB team mate Kate French made a lightning start, both sitting in a tie for first after five rounds.

The British duo then struggled through the middle part of the ranking round before a strong finish, Murray completing the ranking round in joint 11th with 19 victories and 12 defeats.

No extra points in the bonus round meant Murray ended the morning in third just nine seconds from top spot.

On a tight and technical course, the ride proved to be extremely difficult for many of the athletes but Murray only felled a single pole alongside four time penalties meaning she gained 289 points.

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This saw Murray start the combined event in fourth, 20 seconds behind Kovacs, but Clitheroe’s London 2012 silver medallist lost ground on many of her rivals on the shooting range before eventually finishing 16th.

Pentathlon GB performance director Jan Bartu said: “This was Sam’s best swim performance in a year and although the fencing could have been better she did really well.”

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