Golden welcome home after Olympic win

VILLAGERS in Chapmanslade are celebrating after resident, Kate French, won Olympic gold in the modern pentathlon.  

Kate clinched the gold with an impressive run in the final event of the modern pentathlon to earn Great Britain’s 18th gold of the Tokyo Olympics.

“I don’t know what just happened, I can’t really believe it right now,” said Kate after her win. “I knew I had to focus, I knew I could do it if I just focused on my shooting and ran as hard as I could.

“The team were in the stadium supporting, I could hear them in the crowd and everyone back home, I can’t thank them enough for their support.

Kate, who lives in the village with her husband Leo, received a hero’s welcome when she returned to  Chapmanslade.

“It’s been so nice, the neighbours put up some bunting and a big sign saying ‘Well done Kate’ at the end of the lane,” Kate told White Horse News. “I didn’t even make it into the house before they were all outside. It’s very exciting. It’s been such a fantastic response since I’ve been home. The support from everyone who was watching on TV was great to hear. 

“I had a really good season this year so I knew I was favourite going into the Olympics. I didn’t think about that because I knew I had to concentrate if I was going to reach my best, but pentathlons are really quite hard to get everything right on the day.  

“There’s so many things that can go wrong and I knew I had to stick to my plans and keep focused.” 

Modern pentathlon comprises five different elements of fencing, freestyle swimming (200m), equestrian show jumping, and combined event of pistol shooting and running. 

Kate said she was a bit disappointed with her fencing performance saying, “It’s my strongest discipline. It wasn’t a bad fence but I didn’t start well but I finished a lot stronger. 

“Then we had a night and so I had to put that behind me and refocus, but I was still very much in the contention for gold.” 

Kate then achieved a personal best in the swimming and was in fifth place after the show jumping before storming to gold in the final shooting and running discipline.

“When I came over the line in first, I couldn’t believe what was happening,” added Kate. “But it was so nice that we had our coaching team there, and I thought about everyone watching. It was a special moment.

“Now I will have some down time for a month to six weeks and go back to training for the winter block which is in October. I haven’t decided what I’m going to do about the next games, which are in Paris in only three years’ time.” 

Describing Kate’s performance as “phenomenal” TeamGB said, “The 30-year-old started the decisive laser-run in fifth position, 15 seconds back following the swimming, fencing and show jumping disciplines.

“But a brilliant first pistol shoot helped her close the gap and by the end of the first of four 800m laps, she was in the lead.

“Kate didn’t let up from there, steadily building a lead over her rivals and nailing each of the other three pistol shoot rounds before sprinting home to win by 16 seconds for Team GB’s 18th Tokyo gold.

“She follows in the footsteps of Stephanie Cook, who won Olympic gold at Sydney 2000 when the women’s modern pentathlon event was held at the Games for the first time.”