Kate French of Great Britain produced an extraordinary laser run performance to destroy a high class field and win gold in the individual modern pentathlon at the Tokyo Stadium.
French came to these Games having never won an Olympic medal. Aged 30, she now has her moment of sporting ultimacy in one of the most taxing, nuanced and – let’s face it – occasionally bizarre disciplines at the Games, played out over five and half hours in the baking heat of Tokyo.
The modern pentathlon is a brutal sport. You fence, you fence again, you swim, you show jump. And then the whole thing basically comes down to a running event, with target shooting crammed in between the laps. French had kept herself in the main peloton all the way through on Friday afternoon, with the key performance coming in the showjumping, where it is possible to lose everything on a testy horse.
By the time the field lined up for the start in the laser, with the skies now dark over the Musashino forest sports plaze, French was in an intriguing position: fifth on the list, but only 15 seconds back back from the leader Uliana Batashova of ROC.
At which point French hit the ignition, catching Batashova after the opening 400m and reaching the shooting range first. She was precise with the pistol, popping her five targets with remarkable speed, then setting off with a lead that only got bigger from there. By the time the field hit the second lap it was all French, popping five out of five with the gun, then putting in a surge in the second 800m that killed the race.
This was a thrilling act of endurance. In mid-afternoon French could be seen splashing her way up and down the holiday hotel-style pool at one of the stadium, taking eighth place in the swim heats. Five and a half hours later she took the tape in the laser one minute and fifteen seconds ahead of the London 2012 gold medallist Laura Asadauskaitė – or rather the tape was dropped in front of her, then hauled back up into place just in time. There is a charming, village sports day feel to this event, which combines endurance and skill with an agreeable camaraderie.
French collapsed for a moment on the track, then looked up in disbelief, waving to the stands as the British contingent whooped and cheered. A medal was not entirely unexpected: she had won the World Cup event earlier in the year. But this pure sporting warrior-ship French, who was born in Gravesend and now lives in Bath, and here became Britain’s 18th gold medallist of these Games.