PLYMOUTH modern pentathlete Kerenza Bryson admitted competing at the Olympic Games felt completely different to anything she had experienced before.
The European champion made an encouraging start to her Olympic debut by finishing fifth overall in the women’s fencing ranking round in Paris.
It puts her in a good position going into Saturday’s semi-final.
Bryson said: “Compared to the other World Cups and European Championships I’ve done this year it was definitely a completely different atmosphere.
“It was really noisy, the whole preparation and getting into the stadium, it was crazy.
“I struggled with that a little bit at the start it was very nerve-wracking.
“I just had to work really hard to find my flow and just fight all the way.
“I guess I’m a bit of a fighter. I started really, really poorly. I’ve never ever done that before and I just knew that if I wanted to end this competition well, I needed to fight it back and to finish on a good result.
“Fighting back to fifth place after I’m pretty sure I was last at one point, I’m pretty happy with that.”
Her Team GB colleague Kate French, the defending Olympic champion, was ranked third after the fencing.
“I think both [myself and Kate French] are in good shape,” said Bryson. “We both have horsing riding experience and I think we can pull out a good competition with what we’ve got there in the fence.”