U.S. Army Captain Mickey Kelly (Colorado Springs, Colo.) turned in her group's fastest time in the combined run/shoot on Thursday to clinch the final qualifying spot for the women's final at the UIPM Modern Pentathlon World Championships in Rome, Italy.

Kelly, who entered the combined in 21st place in Group A, 91 seconds behind the leader, posted a total time of 11:37.55 for the combined event to vault up the standings into 12th place with 4,040 points. A top-12 finish was needed in each of the three qualification groups to advance to Saturday's final and earn valuable ranking points toward Olympic qualification.

2008 Olympian Margaux Isaksen (Fayetteville, Ark.), also competing in Group A, was in ninth place heading into the combined event, just 61 seconds out of the lead, but ran into trouble in the last discipline, posting a total time of 12:48.57 which dropped her to 16th place with 3,876 points.

Suzanne Stettinius (Parkton, Md.) finished in 16th place in Group B with 3,864 points. She had a strong fencing performance with 14 victories. In Group C, Samanthan Achterberg (Littleton, Colo.) placed 25th with 3,532 points.

The men's individual qualification event takes place on Friday with Americans Dennis Bowsher (Dallas, Texas), Will Brady (Howell, Mich.), Eli Bremer (Monument, Colo.) and Sam Sacksen (Somerset, Pa.) competing for spots in Sunday's men's final.

Catch all the live action and results from the World Championships at www.pentathlon.org.

Competition Schedule: 

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