Heather Fell, Olympic modern pentathlete silver medalist, writes about her life 'on and off' the track.

FOR the first time in my career I competed in two World Cups back to back. This meant we headed straight from Charlotte, USA to Rio De Janeiro, Brazil to compete in another semi and final just one week apart.

Both of these competitions had a large number of entries and therefore the girls competition was split into a three way semi final - another career first for me – which meant only the top 12 from each qualified through to the final. The combination of the increased difficulty to qualify for the final, the travel and two big competitions in just 10 days has been more demanding than I expected. Therefore I certainly didn't feel guilty spending my last day in Rio lying on the famous Copacabana beach.

Obviously before the competition we couldn't spend much time under the strong South American sunrays so we entertained ourselves with the usual, yes a little retail therapy, making the most of the decent exchange rate. The city of Rio De Janeiro might not have a great reputation and staying in the busy central district we certainly had to be careful when venturing out but I felt completely safe using the public transport and browsing the markets.

The biggest problem I think they are going to face is meeting their deadlines for the football World Cup in two years followed by the next Olympics. There is little sign of the required infrastructure needed to host such major events and the traffic is a significant problem. We had the luxury of police escorts for the journey to the competition venue but I can't imagine this would be a solution for all the events taking place at an Olympic games. Yet whatever this city might be lacking it makes up for in the amazing natural beauty that no city can rival, it still takes my breath away.