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Kate French and Joe Choong selected to represent Great Britain at Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro

By: KentOnline reporter multimediadesk@thekmgroup.co.uk

Published: 00:00, 08 June 2016

Updated: 10:24, 08 June 2016

Kate French will make her Olympic Games debut at Rio de Janeiro later this year.

The 25-year-old from Gravesend will represent Great Britain in modern pentathlon - an event which features fencing, swimming, showjumping, pistol shooting and running.

French achieved the qualifying standard at last year's European Championships in Bath, where she now lives and trains.

Kate French is off to the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro Picture: Clare Green/Matchtight

French was inspired by the bronze medal won by Georgina Harland at the Athens 2004 Games.

She said: "I started doing Pony Club tetrathlons when I was young and Georgina came to a prize-giving one year. She brought her Olympic medal and I was able to hold it.

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"I remember thinking 'I’d like one of these one day!'

"Competing at an Olympic Games would mean so much to me, it’s something I’ve wanted to do from a very young age. To be on that plane to Rio is a dream come true."

Also on the team is 21-year-old Joe Choong from Orpington.

He said: "The Olympics has been a dream since I started the sport in Year 9 at school.

"When you start a sport and start doing well, you always keep looking at the next level and thinking bigger, and it doesn’t get any bigger than the Olympics.

"I watched London 2012 and that definitely motivated me to try and get to the next Games. It’s a big moment for me."

Great Britain's four-strong pentathlon contingent is completed by 26-year-old Samantha Murray, who won silver at London 2012, and James Cooke, a 25-year-old from Cheltenham.

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