VILNIUS, Lithuania — Egypt has grabbed the gold medal at the Women’s Modern Pentathlon Junior World Championships hosted by Lithuania.
With four finishers in the top 10, Egypt took home the Women’s Team gold medal, joined on the podium by Poland (silver) and Germany (bronze).
The Pharaohs ended up first with 4,070 points, followed by Poland with 4,007, and Germany with 3,964 points.
Josefine Unterberger of Germany and Mathis Rochat of France broke new ground as the first world junior champions in the new-look Modern Pentathlon.
On the penultimate day of UIPM 2023 Pentathlon Junior World Championships, France won three individual medals and there was a silver to cheer for a loud contingent of spectators from host nation Lithuania.
“Here in Lithuania we hosting the first UIPM Junior Pentathlon World Championships including Obstacle in place of Riding,” UIPM President Dr Klaus Schormann said.
“The best athletes won, and although we saw a little bit of dominance from European nations, the Egyptians also won a gold medal and the Asian athletes were not far away. We also had athletes from Ecuador and Canada performing well, and so it was a global presentation of our sport.
With fans around the world watching live coverage of Modern Pentathlon with the integrated Obstacle discipline for the first time, it was a truly special occasion as the world’s best Under 22 athletes showed how far they have already come in adjusting to the transformed sport.
Super day in Druskininkai (LTU) got off to a pulsating start as Unterberger (GER) kicked in the final 300m of the Women’s Final Laser Run to overtake Katarzyna Debska of Poland, forcing her to accept silver ahead of bronze medallist Louison Cazaly of France.
Later, Rochat (FRA) dominated the Men’s Final having started 3rd, and his team-mate Leo Bories (FRA) fought hard for bronze behind local hero Paulius Vagnorius (LTU).
Having already won the Men’s Relay with Emilien Maire (FRA), Rochat (FRA) took his personal gold-medal tally to three as France added the Men’s Team gold, with silver going to Great Britain and Ukraine claiming bronze.
The Fencing Ranking Round had been dominated by Yeeun Kim (KOR) with an exceptional 29V/6D, but the Bonus Round was owned by two athletes who bounded up the ladder with a sustained run of success.
First Barbora Hartmanova of Czech Republic scored seven victories for a 14-point boost, and then Audrey Tchirikhtchian (FRA) won the last five bouts to remain the last woman standing.
The importance of Obstacle in the destination of the medals was underlined by the performance of Unterberger (GER), who recovered from elimination in her Semi-final with an excellent time of 45.34sec. Demonstrating great upper-body strength, her time was bettered only by Zeina Amer (EGY), who scorched the course in 44.63.
As athletes from around the world showed the importance of technique in manoeuvring the eight obstacles, local spectators cheered the performance of Teja Pakinkyte (LTU), who was 3rd-fastest in 47.71. The U17 world champions from 2023 and 2022, Farida Khalil (EGY) and Sumin Shin of Korea, also went under 50sec, showing the versatility that marks them out as contenders for future honours at senior level.
Having lurked in the background until now, Malgorzata Karbownik (POL) moved to the top of the leaderboard with an excellent swim of 2:11.12, slower only than the exceptional Yuri Suzuki of Japan (2:09.20), with Valentina Martinescu of Italy also catching the eye in 2:12.57.
This earned Karbownik (POL) the right to start first in Laser Run, but only 2sec ahead of Unterberger (GER) with Debska (POL), Cazaly (FRA), U19 world champion Malak Ismail (EGY) and Shin (KOR) all within 16sec and capable of influencing proceedings.
In the end it was a fairly steady Laser Run, with only Karbownik (POL) fading out of contention and Debska (POL) catching the eye with excellent shooting and a steady progression past Unterberger (GER) leading to the day’s finest Laser Run time of 11:13.44. But Debska (POL) left the shooting range with only a 2sec lead, and the more physically imposing Unterberger (GER) executed her race strategy beautifully with a final kick to ultimately win by 5sec.
Cazaly (FRA) kept Ismail (EGY) at bay to claim bronze after consecutive gold medals at this competition by her team-mate Rebecca Castaudi (FRA) in 2021 and 2022. Shin (KOR) and Amer (EGY) completed the top six as Laser Run world champion Elzbieta Adomaityte (LTU) climbed from 19th to finish 7th.
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