TAVISTOCK?S Olympic pentathlete Kate Allenby saw her medal hopes crash to the ground on Friday as her horse, Babar, clipped fence after fence in the showjumping event ? and showed just why he?s named after an elephant.
Kate entered the showjumping, usually her strongest event, in silver medal position after rectifying a disastrous first round of shooting with a fine fencing performance and a personal best time in the swim.
She said: ?I gave a real Jekyll and Hyde performance in the shooting ? I was terribly nervous over the first five shots but after that things improved.?
Kate put on a superb show in the fencing, pulling herself up twelve places to head for the pool in sixth position and there she pulled out the performance of the day.
?We had such a tight schedule I was getting physio in the bus on the way to the pool,? said Kate. ?I threw on my suit, dived into the water and felt fantastic, then with one turn to go I caught a glimpse of a sea of Union Jacks and just went for it.?
Kate shaved a full two seconds off her personal best and leapt to second place overall.
Pentathletes then had to draw lots for a mount from a pool of 25 Italian horses to take them through the equestrian discipline.
Kate said she had been pleased to be drawn on Babar after his sterling performance the day before, but once in the ring, it seemed nothing could go right.
Despite Kate?s best efforts the pair amassed a woeful 196 penalty points leaving the Tavistokian well adrift of a medal chance.
?I don?t know what went wrong really. The horse?s mouth seemed sore, with even the lightest touch on the reins he brought his head back like an emu and that stopped him lifting his feet properly.?
In desperation Kate gave Babar a free rein, but by then it was little more than a damage limitation exercise.
With her worst event, the 3km cross country run, yet to come Kate dropped to seventh place and eventually finished eighth overall.
She said: ?I?m devastated really, as modern pentathletes the Olympics is our big stage, and we had so much support from the British, no-one could have done more than they did.?
Words of praise were also reserved for her bronze-medallist team-mate Georgina Harland .
?I couldn?t be more pleased for her. She was absolutely selfless helping out in Sydney, she watched from the stands as reserve and came back determined to take part this time.
?To come out here and achieve what she has is fantastic.?
Kate also expressed her thanks for all the support she had received from her hometown.
She said: ?I had so many good luck cards from people in Tavistock they covered a whole wall in my room.
?It was lovely because lots of people sent pictures of the town centre and Bedford Square ? one even showed a painting of Whitchurch.?
The 30 year-old now plans to go all out for gold at the modern pentathlon World Cup finals in Germany this month before retiring to train as a teacher in November.