Harland, Mhairi Spence, Katy Livingston and Heather Fell all came through the semi-finals in Lativa.
 
Spence finished joint top of her semi-final with three other athletes, while Harland qualified comfortably in 13th place.

 

Fell was seventh in the other semi, with Livingston finishing 13th.
 
It means all four will be competing for top-eight finishes in Sunday’s final – which would achieve the Beijing 2008 Olympic qualifying standard.

 

The fact that more than three Britons have made the final means GB can also attempt to defend the European team title they won in Hungary last year.
 
“All four athletes are through to the final and they all had fairly low damage semi-finals,” said GB performance director Jan Bartu.
 
“They all have high standards and they showed it today,” he added.

 

“I wouldn’t say it was easy for them, but it was comfortable.
 
“They all competed sensibly today.

 

After thee events they had pretty much qualified for the final.

 

That meant they could control the race and finish with minimum exhaustion.

 

That’s a good base for the final on Sunday.”
 
Bartu said he was pleased to see six British athletes reach the finals after Sam Weale and Nick Woodbridge go in the men’s event tomorrow.
 
“It shows the team and the programme have made a big step forward from where we were a couple of years ago,” said Bartu, who is based at the MPAGB’s (Modern Pentathlon Association of Great Britain) High Performance Centre at the University of Bath.
 
Harland, bronze medallist at the Athens 2004 Olympics, was joint 15th after the shooting discipline with a score of 170, worth 976 points, in semi-final A.

 

Spence fared better in the shoot, with 181, worth 1108 points, to lie joint fourth in the same semi.
 
Spence’s 12 victories and eight defeats gave her 912 further points, pushing her up to third after the fencing, while Harland also rose up the scoreboard.

 

Her 13 wins and seven defeats earned 956 points, putting her 10th at the halfway mark of the semis  - where only four of the five modern pentathlon disciplines are contested.
 
Spence moved to joint second after touching home in 2:20.77 at the end of the swim for 1232 points, while Harland’s 2:21.87 gave her 1220, comfortably keeping her in contention for the finals in 10th place.
 
In the 3k run, the pair both did enough to ensure they reached Sunday’s final. Spence competed the run in 12:14.08 for 784 points to finish joint first in her semi on 4036 pints with three other athletes.

 

Harland crossed the line in 11:58.38 for 848 points to end up 13th on 4000 points.
 
Athletes competing in semi-final B got their campaign underway in the fencing salle.

 

Livingston and Fell both lost more contests than they won, but netted 736 and 692 points respectively. Fell’s 182 points in the shooting range gave her 1120 points, pushing her to 12th overall.

 

Livingston’s 172 gave her 1000 points from the shooting range.
 
Fell’s strong swim – 2:14.41 (1,308 points)  – promoted her to ninth overall with one discipline remaining. Livingston also produced a strong swim, finishing in 2:15.84 for 1,292 points to remain in sight of the final in 14th overall.
 
Again, both GB athletes did enough in the run to book a berth in Sunday’s final.

 

Fell completed the run in 11:40.03 for 920 points, to finish seventh overall on 4040 points, while Livingston’s 11:46.30 gave her 896 points and 3924 overall, finishing 13th. 
 
Eight qualification places for Beijing 2008 are available both for men and women from the European Championships because of the high calibre of modern pentathletes in Europe.