Olympics-Modern Pentathlon-Champion French withdraws from women's final

VERSAILLES, France (Reuters) - Britain's reigning Olympic champion Kate French has withdrawn from Sunday's women's Modern Pentathlon final at the Paris Games due to sickness, the sport's governing body said.

French will be replaced by Germany's Annika Zillekens, who had announced her retirement after failing to qualify from Saturday's semi-final.

Zillekens was involved in a storm at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 when she competed under her maiden name of Schleu and was a favourite for gold until her horse repeatedly refused in the show jumping element.

Coach Kim Raisner then struck the horse with her fist, an incident that led to Modern Pentathlon dropping the equestrian element for the 2028 Los Angeles Games and replacing it with obstacle courses.

(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Peter Rutherford)