PLYMOUTH pentathletes Kerenza Bryson and Myles Pillage both impressed for Great Britain at World Cup 2 in Turkey.
Both reached individual finals and finished as top Brits, with Bryson claiming fifth in the women’s event and Pillage coming 13th in the men’s competition.
Pillage then teamed up with Jess Varley on Sunday and won a bronze medal in the mixed relay, thanks to a superb sprint finish by the Plymouth athlete.
Despite picking up some penalties in the ride, and coming up against some difficulties in the fencing, Pillage and Varley clocked the fastest swim of the day to put themselves in the middle of the pack (8th) ahead of the laser-run.
Whilst Varley held the position, a sub-10 second shoot from Pillage seemed to ignite a reserve of energy from within and he powered through the field on the final lap to steal a well-deserved bronze medal for the pair.
Varley said: “In the relays its always so close, and we started on 45 seconds so I knew I would have to go for it, but it was all Myles in the laser-run – he smashed it.”
Pillage said: “It’s a team effort really. Whatever I did in the laser-run, we balanced each other out in the riding and fencing.”
Bryson particularly impressed in a strong individual women’s event in a field stacked with Olympic and world medallists.
The 24-year-old rode well and picked up just one fault before securing 17 victories in the fencing discipline and also picking up an extra hit in the bonus round.
In the swim, which had to be moved from outside to indoors due to bad weather, Bryson clocked 2:21.77.
But it was in the laser-run that Bryson really impressed, moving up five places.
She produced an incredible sub-10 second shoot (8.84 seconds) on her final visit to the range and came through to take fifth place and her first World Cup appearance of the year.