THERE’S nothing quite like a deadline to focus the mind. For Freyja Prentice, that deadline is a week on Tuesday, the day the Modern Pentathlon European Championships begin in Bath, the city she lives and trains in.
Just two months ago, Prentice, a former world junior gold medallist, was on crutches and in a medical boot with the prospects of her making it into the British team for the event looking bleak. A severe bone stress injury to her tibia left her unable to bear any weight but it is amazing what a bit of determination can do.
“I really pinned all my hopes on getting fit for Europeans and that’s what’s kept me going,” she says. “I put a lot of pressure on myself to get back. When you’re an athlete, you just focus on one thing and the Europeans were what got me through all the rehab, because, in my mind, I was competing and I was going to do everything I could to make sure of that.”
Prentice’s injury could hardly have come at a worse time. She had just won bronze at the World Cup in Cairo at the end of March and everything, she believed, was progressing nicely. As sport has the habit of doing though, a spanner was thrown in the works and as Prentice’s team-mates travelled to the World Championships, the Scot was left on the sidelines as an injured spectator. She admits that watching the other athletes fight it out for world medals was, in a funny way, a good thing because it confirmed to her that she wanted to be out there, in the thick of it, and she says that not being able to compete “really fired me up”.
The 25-year-old from Inverurie regained her fitness remarkably quickly and having this week successfully negotiated a training camp in the Pyrenees, Prentice will be lining up in her third European Championships. As Prentice finished just outside the medals in fourth place at the 2013 Europeans, a medal would be the next progression but her injury has put the brakes on her ambition.
“I’ve got mixed feelings about the Europeans – most of me is really looking forward to it but then there’s a little bit of me that isn’t as confident in my physical ability as I normally am,” she says.
“Usually I would be aiming for top eight or top 10 but now my target is just to make the final. I don’t know how my body is going to respond to two days of competition and I’m expecting to be a little bit worse for wear after the qualifying.
“But it’s pentathlon and anything can happen once you get to the final. Training has been going well and I’m feeling much more confident than I was a couple of weeks ago, so I’m hoping that momentum is just going to continue building.”
Modern pentathlon is, Prentice admits, a somewhat random combination of sports; fencing, swimming, shooting, cross-country running and riding makes it unorthodox but it is a sport that Britain’s women excel at.
Her GB squad-mates include fellow Scot and 2012 World champion Mhairi Spence, last year’s world champion Samantha Murray and World Cup medallist Kate French, which makes getting into the team an achievement in itself.
Prentice admits this strength in depth can make for some tough training sessions at their GB base in Bath. “It’s a very strong squad and because the girls are of such a high standard, we really push each other on,” she says.
“We train together day in, day out and if you see someone else training hard, it makes you think that you should be pushing yourself to the limit. People ask how we manage it without any problems but we’ve developed a system where we’re able to use training together as a positive thing rather than looking at everyone as our competition.
“The squad is very competitive but I think that’s a good thing. We’re all friends and when you’re in training, you have to just treat it as a job.”
NEXT week’s European Championships is the final event of the 2015 season and after a short break, Prentice will be back in training with all eyes focused on qualifying for next summer’s Olympic Games in Rio.
She has an extra incentive as she was one of three British women to achieve the qualifying standard for London 2012, but missed out with only two places available.
One year out from the 2016 Olympics, the Scot admits they are already in her thoughts. Prentice said: “I think if you ask any of us, Rio is the main focus, especially with this European Championships being the first Olympic qualifier, Rio is very much at the forefront of everyone’s minds and it’s definitely at the forefront of mine.
“But British pentathlon is so competitive and there are so many girls in the frame that it means it’s a constant battle. I’m just hoping to have a good winter, stay fit next season and hopefully get to Rio next summer.”
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