Horse fall dashes Twinning's hopes (From Stroud News and Journal)

Horse fall dashes Twinning's hopes

GEOFF TWINNING came agonisingly close to a podium finish at the British Open Modern Pentathlon Championships held at Millfield School.

Twinning had worked himself into a strong position after winning 15 of his 18 hits in the fencing to place him first in this event and second position overall.

However, the show jumping followed but a fall at fence nine dashed any chance of a gold medal.

Earlier, Twinning started exceedingly brightly and scored well in the shoot achieving his highest score of the year.

This was followed by a win in the 200m swim, again achieving a personal best and placing him in third. Day two started with the fencing.

The fall in the show jumping placed him fourth to start in the 3000k run. Having then run a well-paced race he succeeded in keeping the chasing athletes at bay and achieved a creditable fourth.

Two well-earned individual event gold medals helped ease the disappointment of what had at first seemed would be his first senior podium placement.