ANKARA — Egypt’s Mohanad Shaban claimed the gold medal as his teammate Ahmed el-Gendy won the bronze medal at the UIPM 2023 Pentathlon World Cup.
The 22-year-old had carried a 10-point lead from the semi-final into final at the International Modern Pentathlon Union (UIPM) event having produced an excellent performance in the fencing ranking round, where he earned 25 wins and suffered just 10 defeats.
“I’m so happy for my first World Cup gold. It’s so emotional for me, it was such a hard competition,” champion Shaban said.
“I was up against Joe Choong and Woongtae and Elgendy, the three medallists from the Olympics, so it was really hard.
“At the last World Cup my shooting was really bad, I went from 1st place to 4th, but this time I stayed in 1st and I’m the winner today,” Shaban added.
Shaban’s closest challengers going into the competition were the French pair of Valentin Prades and Valentin Belaud, along with Tokyo 2020 bronze medallist Woongtae Jun and Hungary’s Bruce Demeter, all of whom were 10 points adrift of the leader, with Britain’s Tokyo 2020 champion Joseph Choong five points further back.
Jun eventually took silver, with Shaban’s compatriot Ahmed Elgendy, the Tokyo 2020 silver medallist, earning bronze.
The UIPM 2023 Pentathlon World Cup in Ankara is the second in the planned series of four before Ankara hosts the World Cup final from May 31 to June 4.
Olympic champion Joseph Choong of Great Britain suffered elimination in Riding. His fellow Tokyo 2020 medallists capitalised, with Woongtae Jun of Korea cruising to silver and El-Gendy of Egypt winning a hot contest for bronze.
“It’s a great start to the season, with a gold in Cairo and a bronze here in Ankara,” bronze medallist El-Gendy of Egypt said.
“The competition was not going good in the qualification and semi-finals, and in the final before the Riding I didn’t think I had the chance to lose any more points, but I lost 14,” El-Gendy added according to the UIPM official website.
“That didn’t get me into competition for the gold medal, but with a good run and an average shoot I made the podium. I’m very happy to get this medal, and I hope to be better for the World Cup Final.
“I got an injury in the Fencing Ranking Round, when I was doing a lunge, it’s not a tear but a hard spasm and we had to manage that in the final.
“We decided that if I was in contention for a medal I would go for it, but if not, not to fight too hard. The most important thing is the next competition,” El-Gendy added.
However, neither of them could compete with the magisterial Shaban, who led from the front in Fencing for the second competition in a row and this time held on tightly to his hard-earned pole position.
Lithuania’s 2021 European individual champion Ieva Serapinaite, who had kept herself in contention by finishing third in her semi-final, put everything together best to take the gold.
Germany’s Rebecca Langrehr earned silver ahead of Mexico’s Mariana Arceo, who had won the second semi-final.
The 28-year-old Serapinaite started the Women’s Final Laser Run behind France duo Marie Oteiza and Elodie Clouvel but seized her opportunity when each of them suffered a major malfunction on the shooting range.
For Serapinaite, heir apparent to the throne of two-time Olympic medallist Laura Asadauskaite of Lithuania, it was a second Pentathlon World Cup gold in consecutive years.
To earn it she had to hold off a fierce challenge from two first-time medallists, Rebecca Langrehr of Germany (silver) and Mariana Arceo of Mexico (bronze).
In the Men’s Riding Final, Shaban of Egypt waited for his turn as the Olympic champion was eliminated with his horse refusing to jump, while two-time world champion Valentin Belaud of France incurred 50 penalty points. El-Gendy of Egypt also dislodged two obstacles during his round.
Shaban rode superbly to claim the maximum 300 points and retained his overall supremacy on the leader board. And he was far from the only athlete to show a mastery of Riding.
Carrying forward a 10-point lead from the Ranking Round, Shaban continued to look unflappable as he claimed the four available points for winning the last bout of the Bonus Round against Bence Demeter of Hungary.
