Samantha Murray: Briton loses world modern pentathlon title

GB modern pentathlete Samantha Murray, from Lancashire, won a silver medal at the 2012 Olympics

Britain's Samantha Murray failed to retain her world title and missed out on automatic qualification for Rio 2016 after finishing fifth at the Modern Pentathlon World Championships.

A poor display in the fencing cost her as she lost out to overall winner, Germany's Lena Schoneborn.

Murray, 25, could only win 12 of her 35 bouts in the fencing in Berlin.

The Briton was joint fastest in the swimming pool and rode a near-perfect round in the show-jumping.

But because of her fencing score she started the final combined run and shoot in 11th - more than a minute down on Schoneborn.

Despite making up six places the Lancashire athlete narrowly missed out on her target of a place on the podium.

Her next chance to qualify for Rio 2016 will be at the European Championships in Bath in August.

Modern Pentathlon GB performance director Jan Bartu said there was work to do for the entire team before the European Championships.

On Friday, no British man could break into the top 20, with Jamie Cooke the highest finisher in 22nd, while Nick Woodbridge and Joe Choong ended up 27th and 28th respectively.

The men's final was won by Ukraine's Pavlo Tymoshchenko.