KENT pentathlete Georgina Harland warmed-up for next year’s Olympic Games with victory in the World Cup final in Athens.

The 25-year-old from Waltham, near Canterbury, now based at the Great Britain team headquarters at Bath University, produced her customary strong performance in the final running event to clinch the gold medal.

It was Harland’s second big success in a row, having claimed her first major title with victory at the European Championships in the Czech Republic in August.

She said: “The Europeans were a great achievement and got me Olympic qualification. Since then it has been a slog of three months hard winter training.

“This competition was not in our season, which runs from February to August, but I decided to go and see what things were like in Athens.

“The aim was to just compete on the Olympic venues and try out the technical things I had been working on in training.

“It was more about going through the process than the outcome, but as a competitor it is always nice to be on top of the podium.”