Germany's Lena wins pentathlon

(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-08-23 10:30

Germany's Lena Schoneborn emerged as winner of the women's modern pentathlon last night. The 22-year-old took an early lead in the five sports in a day event designed to test an athlete's all-around ability.

Britain's Heather Fell, a 25-year-old physiotherapist, took the silver medal while Ukraine's Victoria Tereshuk moved up from sixth place to claim bronze.

"It was a good start, fencing was the basis of my win. It was a good result and I was lucky to get a good horse (in the showjumping)," said Schoneborn afterwards.

The German's cumulative score after four rounds of 4,584 points converted into a 19 sec lead over Fell for the final 3,000m run, where the overall leader was first to go in a staggered start. This meant whoever was first across the line would be Olympic champion.

Fell said she knew she had too much to do on the final run but never gave up hope. "I thought she (Schoneborn) was dying a bit on the run," she said. "We'd been neck-and-neck all day."

Schoneborn, an economics student in Berlin, was only the third woman to win the event, which was first staged at Sydney.

Agencies

(China Daily 08/23/2008 page7)