KATE Allenby, Tavistock's modern pentathlete, said she was 'tired but very happy' after gaining a gold in the relay event at the world championships at Millfield School last week, and fellow Tavistock athlete Heather Fell is hoping to follow in her footsteps.

The British team, which consisted of Stephanie Cook, Georgina Harland and Kate, finished almost 600 points clear of silver medallists Poland. Success had been anticipated as the athletes were the top three ranked women in Britain and the world.

'I would have been disappointed if we had won silver,' said Kate. 'If you have a good team around you, you should win gold. But I didn't know if we could do it on home ground, with the added pressure that brings.'

In fact, it was the home support that Kate said had helped her performance: 'The support from Tavistock was fantastic. The more people yelled at me, the better I did. I think I'm just a big show-off!'

Kate failed to win a medal in the individual event, coming fifth, but she was not too downhearted: 'It is annoying coming fifth; you are close to a medal, but not quite. But if someone had told me at the beginning of the year that I could come fifth after my injury I would have laughed at them.'

In the relay event Kate jumped the only clear round in the whole week — in all there were about 150 rounds. But in the individual event the horse she had been drawn struggled over the fences.

'I don't like to blame the horse, as I always feel it is my fault. But my coach said that of the four penalties I picked up there was only one I could have done something about,' Kate said.

'I was really pleased with my fencing, which hasn't been consistent recently. But I managed to pull it together on the day. The shooting was disappointing, but it was my best performance in a world championship. I didn't do as well as I hoped in swimming in the individual event, but by then I was shattered after competing for several days.'

Kate started fourth overall in the final run in the individual event, but was overtaken by team-mate Georgina — who took the bronze medal. The gold was won by third team-mate Stephanie Cook, who was competing in her last championships.

Kate's parents were at the championships to support her, but had tasks of their own. Her mother was steward in charge of the horse mounting and her father was doctor in charge of medical.

Kate will now be taking a holiday before starting training again in September for the winter season and next year's world championships in San Francisco.

Junior modern pentathlete, 18-year-old Heather Fell, is hoping to follow in Kate's footsteps.

Heather, who lives at Merrivale, has been competing in the tetrathlon — the pentathlon minus horse event — since she was eight, and stepped up to the modern pentathlon more recently.

A former pupil of Whitchurch Primary School, Heather trained at Kelly College — which she has just left following A-levels — with Archie and then Robin Brew.

At the Junior European Championships at Usti Nad Labem at the beginning of July, Heather was an excellent sixth out of 32 competitors and at the Youth A European Championships in Spala in Poland a week later she was 15th.

Heather is now off to Budapest in Hungary for the Junior World Championships.

Fellow modern pentathlete, Kate Allenby — whom Heather said was her inspiration and who had helped her in various ways over the past few years - said that Heather had had a 'fantastic' European Championships.

'She now knows what potential she has and can train and compete with that knowledge,' she said, adding that it was brilliant to have another athlete from Tavistock in the sport.

But Kate wondered what had had happened to male athletes in the area. 'Come on the boys — where are you?' she challenged.