Spece wins world gold in Rome

Great Britain's Mhairi Spence achieved the Olympic qualifying standard in style with gold at the Modern Pentathlon World Championships in Rome.

And her team-mate Samantha Murray also attained the standard by producing a terrific finish to take bronze.

It means three British women have achieved the qualifying standard to date after Freyja Prentice achieved the feat at last year's European Championships, although only two athletes per gender per nation can compete at the Games.

Spence, who went to Rome ranked fifth in the world, became the first British woman to win individual gold at the world championships since Steph Cook in 2001.

And there was further success for Spence and Murray, who joined forces with Heather Fell to win team gold to take the team's medal tally at the championships so far to four following the team relay bronze won by Katy Burke, Kate French and Katy Livingston on the opening day of the championships.

Spence produced a tremendous run/shoot to climb from third place to first, overtaking France's three-times world champion Amelie Caze on the final one kilometre run.

The Scot had started the run/shoot in third, 37 seconds behind Caze.

However, she shot well and left the shooting range the final time just two seconds behind the Frenchwoman.

She overtook her early on in the final run and then pulled away.

Spence said: "People were cheering me on coming down the home straight at the end and I found some extra energy somewhere.

"I just kept fighting and fighting all the way.

"I worked so hard all day to keep it

together. When I got to the shooting range I found the flow that we're always looking for in sport

"It's unbelievable, I'm just so happy.

"I've got a great team behind me. Everyone has worked so hard to get me here. We've worked really hard for this."

Murray worked her way up into third place by the final run, but was overtaken by China's 2009 world champion Qian Chen toward the end.

But she too overhauled Caze with a sprint finish to come home in third.

The University of Bath French student said: "I can't believe it, I had to work really hard for it on the home straight. I'm so pleased and proud."

Fell produced a battling run/shoot to climb from 20th to end the day in 15th while Prentice finished in 16th.

Jan Bartu, Pentathlon GB performance director, said: "It's been a terrific day for the British team. As far as the British ladies' team is concerned, it's our best World Championships since 2001.

"It's been an emotionally charged day and we're massively proud.

"We now have one or two days to come back to mother earth, regroup, refocus and continue working hard towards London."