Olympic dreams for local women

LYDGATE’S Olivia Green has enjoyed her biggest individual success after being crowned European Under-24 modern pentathlon champion.

The 22-year-old former Hulme Grammar pupil triumphed in Drzonkow, Poland, against Europe’s elite young pentathletes.

And there were also further medals for Olivia who helped Great Britain win the team event.
Olivia then teamed up with Toby Price to win bronze in the mixed relay.

Olivia Green wins gold

A delighted Olivia, who is at the University of Bath where the Team GB triathletes are based, said: “This is the biggest thing I have won as an individual.

“I had been training really hard for this event and, for it all to come together, was really pleasing.
“I performed well across the board in all the events and could not have asked for more.

“Training went really well and, because of that, I felt I would be in contention.”

Olivia finished seventh in the 200m swim, fifth in the fencing with 20 wins and 12 losses, jumped clear in the showjumping but picked up 10 penalties as the tight, twisty course made it nigh impossible to get inside the time limit and recorded a personal best time to win the laser run.

It has been another successful season for Olivia who earlier this year made her debut for Great Britain seniors as she and boyfriend Joe Choong won gold in the mixed relay at the UIPM 2021 Pentathlon World Cup in Budapest, Hungary.

Olivia Green

There were also huge celebrations in the summer when Joe won individual gold at the Olympic Games in Tokyo.

Olivia, who is the final year of her studies for a sports science degree, and Joe enjoyed a night off on Thursday, November 25, her 22nd birthday, to attend the Team GB Ball in London to mark one of the most successful Olympics for the country in Tokyo.

But it was soon back to preparing for the next big event, the first of next season’s UK ranking events in Bath on December 11.

Olivia will be up against the top British women pentathletes including Olympic champion Kate French, so will be able to measure her progress against them.

She added Team GB’s gold medals for both individual men and women in Tokyo provides motivation to emulate their successes at a future Olympics, ideally at the 2024 Games.

Great Britain remarkably won two golds, two silvers and two bronzes in modern pentathlon since Sydney 2000 – all of which were delivered by the women’s team.

That put pressure on world number one Joe to become the first man to win a men’s modern pentathlon Olympic medal since Jim Fox, Danny Nightingale and Adrian Parker won team gold in 1976.

No nation in Olympic history had ever won medals in both the men’s and women’s competition in the same Games as Kate and Joe rewrote history with double gold in Tokyo.