Woodbridge in fightback

Shropshire modern pentathlete Nick Woodbridge proved the best of the Brits to boost his chances of reaching the Beijing Olympics this summer.

Woodbridge, from New Works in Telford, finished ninth in the World Cup meeting in Madrid yesterday, with his compatriots Sam Weale and Ben McLean ending the final in 11th and 13th respectively.

With each country allowed to send a maximum of two men to Beijing, Woodbridge’s performance in Spain offered genuine hope of him reaching the Olympics.

And all that was after a slow start which left the 21-year-old with plenty of work to do after the first two events.

A score of 175 from a maximum of 200 gave Woodbridge 1,036 points in the shoot, before he notched 13 fencing victories to leave himself down in 31st place.

But the recovery mission was soon in full flow as Woodbridge produced the goods in the 200m freestyle swim, traditionally one of his strongest events.

He clocked the fastest time of 1min 58.83secs to rack up a hefty 1,376 points and move up to 22nd place.

And the fightback continued with Woodbridge one of just four riders to complete the perfect round in the showjumping element, before going on to produce a creditable run to leave him with a final total of 5,324.

Some 36 modern pentathletes will line up for the men’s event in Beijing, with each individual’s top three performances at major events up until June to count towards the Olympic ranking list.