No medal but huge pride as Army reservist Bryson finishes ninth in Paris Olympics

Army Reserve officer Kerenza Bryson has finished ninth in the final of the Modern Pentathlon in Paris, after setting a new Olympic points record in the semi-finals. 

The current European champion, who serves part-time in the Royal Logistic Corps, had genuine medal hopes going into the final.

However, she faced the stiffest of competition from France's Elodie Clouvel, the current world champion, Korea's Seong Seungmin, and the eventual  winner, Hungary's Michelle Gulyas, who set a new world record of 1,461 points to take Gold.

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Before the final, it emerged that Tokyo Gold medallist and GB teammate Kate French had had to withdraw through illness.

The first round of the showjumping didn't go the way 25-year-old Bryson had hoped.

She and her horse, Falco Des Squire, had two fences down, which meant she dropped 14 points.

She failed to gain further points in the fencing round, and drawn in the third swimming heat she produced a time of 2mins 21.77, ranking her 15th and giving her a further 267 points.

That meant she was trailling the leading group by too big a gap to make up going into the final round of the gruelling competition at Versailles.

Even though she scored 621 points in the laser shoot, it was too big a mountain to climb to get her among the medals.

But the reservist officer with 265 Port and Maritime Regiment RLC, who is a qualified doctor and the UKAF Sportswoman of the Year, can look back on her Olympic performance with huge pride.