Olympics: Fell Well Placed to Claim Pentathlon Medal

With just one event remaining in the women's modern pentathlon, Britain's Heather Fell is well placed to contend for the gold medal. With the top seven athletes having all completed the show jumping round, Fell is in second place behind Germany's Lena Schoneborn, with just the 3km cross-country run to come at 1pm BST.

Fell rode excellently on a difficult horse to complete the show jumping with just two penalties. Schoneborn, however, extended her lead by going one better and conceding just a single penalty.

Schoneborn has been leading the field since the second event of the day, the fencing. She has a 70-point lead over Fell, which equates to a 19-second head-start in the cross-country run. With France's two-time world champion Amelie Caze due to start a further 14 seconds behind Fell, it promises to be a thrilling denouement to an absorbing day. Fell's team-mate, Katy Livingston, is regarded as the stronger runner of the pair, but she lies further down the field after enduring a disappointing morning.

Fell has been consistent through all four events so far, but outstanding only in the 200m freestyle swim. In sixth place after the early morning 10m pistol shoot, Fell moved up to joint third during the fencing, in which she won 20 of her 35 bouts. In the pool, Fell was third fastest overall, behind Caze and the US' Sheila Taormina. The top five finishers in the event all broke the Olympic record for the 200m freestyle in modern pentathlon, with Taormina, who won a gold medal over that distance as a member of the US 4x100m team in the 1996 Games, beating the mark by some six seconds.