Kate French stormed to a stunning gold medal success in the modern pentathlon (Picture: Getty)

Kate French put together a brilliant series of performances to become Britain’s second Olympic champion in modern pentathlon.

The Rio Games were the first Olympics since the women’s event was introduced in 2000 that Britain had not won a medal but French made up for that in spectacular fashion, keeping her cool superbly in the final run-and-shoot.

French began the last event in fifth but surged into the lead by the end of the first lap and never looked like letting that go, hitting her targets with her laser gun impeccably, missing just two of her 22 shots.

Kate French’s success represented Team GB’s 19th gold medal of Tokyo 2020 (Picture: Getty)

She follows in the footsteps of Stephanie Cook, who was the first female Olympic champion in Sydney, while Kate Allenby, Georgina Harland, Heather Fell and Samantha Murray have all won medals for Britain.

French finished fifth in Rio and was considered a strong medal prospect having won gold at the World Cup final earlier this year.

She performed strongly through the first three events, sitting sixth after the fencing, which was held on Thursday, and then coming eighth with an impressive 200 metres freestyle swim.