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Chloe Esposito wins bronze at World Cup final

 

Chloe Esposito wins bronze at World Cup final

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AOC
Chloe Esposito wins bronze at World Cup final

Chloe Esposito has had a breakthrough performance to finish third at the World Cup Final in Minsk, Belarus.

MODERN PENTATHLON: Chloe Esposito has had a breakthrough performance to finish third at the World Cup Final in Minsk, Belarus.

The 2012 Olympian who was recently selected for the 2016 Australian Olympic Team for Rio, stormed home in the final Combined event (running/shooting) to move up four spots and claim the bronze medal.

Esposito who is only 23 and missed most of the 2013 and 2014 seasons with injuries was thrilled with her podium finish.

“I’m so happy it’s difficult to explain it,” Esposito told the UIPM. “I had a hard year last year and this is my first year coming back into World Cup’s since being injured.

“I finished in the top ten in my first two competitions of the World Cup Series and I was happy with that, but to come to the World Cup Final and get a bronze medal makes me really happy.”

She was 19th after the fencing and then consistently moved up the leaderboard from there. She had the sixth fastest 200m freestyle (2:14.18) and then a near perfect show jumping round, with only one time penalty, had her seventh before her favourite Combined event to come.

She handled the pressure beautifully to shoot well and her speed on the run moved her into third in the final sprint to the line.

The event which featured the top 36 athletes in the world was won by Lithuanian Olympic Champion Laura Asadauskaite.

Chloe’s brother Max, who turns 18 on Tuesday, also demonstrated his amazing talent to finish 14th in the men’s World Cup final.

Max, who was the youngest competitor in Saturday’s event, started slowly and was 35th after the fencing before a personal best swim (2:02.79) got his day back on track.

Like his sister he only had one time penalty in the jumping and then produced the fastest Combined time to pass many of his idols on the way to the finish line.

Max who has only competed in a handful of World Cups was a late call-up for the event which came only two weeks after his breakthrough performance to win the Asia/Oceania Olympic qualifier in Beijing.

The win by Max and fourth place (first Oceania) from Chloe earned them the honour of being the first athletes named on the 2016 Australian Olympic Team.

The pair from south-west Sydney, who are coached by their Olympian father Daniel, will now return to their European base in Hungary to prepare for the World Championships to be held in Germany in three weeks time.

Andrew Reid
Olympics.com.au

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