ALEXANDRIA, Egypt — Haydy Morsy and Amira Kandil were the toast of Egypt after winning Women’s Relay gold on the second day of the UIPM 2022 Pentathlon World Championships.
“I’m super happy that we were leading since the Fencing – we finished 1st and in the Riding we made a clear round and won the Bonus Round,” gold medallist Haydy said.
“In our Swimming heat we finished 3rd, not so good, but then in the Laser Run we finished 1st. I’m super happy to be here in Egypt with the gold medal with my team-mate,” Haydy added.
Team-mate Amira said: “It was an amazing day with Haydy – the whole day was very good. To be No.1 all day, nobody in Egypt has done it like this.
“Yesterday we were taking pictures with the boys with their silver medals and we told them we would get the gold and they said ‘no way,” Amira added.
A day after the host nation claimed silver in the Men’s Relay thanks to Eslam Hamad and Ahmed Hamed, Tokyo 2020 Olympians Morsy and Kandil proved too hot to handle for the rest of the field.
A brave effort by Mariana Arceo and Mayan Oliver of Mexico almost ran them close, with only 7sec separating the top two teams at the end, while Korea added a bronze to their gold collected on day one, as Sehee Kim and Sunwoo Kim held off 4th-placed Wei Wang and Linzhi Xie of China.
The Egypt-hosted tournament runs on July 24-31.
UIPM President’s reaction
UIPM President Dr Klaus Schormann said: “We often talk about the importance of athletes from all continents occupying the podium at UIPM major championships; we had three continents on the podium.
“My congratulations go to the athletes from Egypt, Mexico, Korea and China for their excellent performances. Following a successful first day at the UIPM 2022 Pentathlon World Championships we were treated to more excellent high performances.
“Once again my thanks go to the Egyptian Modern Pentathlon Federation for the excellent organisation of our flagship World Championships for women and men, which are organised every year.
Riding
With six perfect rounds, including scores of 300 for Egypt (Morsy/Kandil), Mexico (Arceo/Oliver), Korea (Kim/Kim) and China (Wang/Xie), there was little to separate the main contenders.
There was, however, a significant development as Tamara Alekszejev and Rita Erdos of Hungary suffered the first elimination of the championships.
Fencing
Some athletes perform well in front of home crowds, while others crumble – Egypt’s pentathletes seem to save their best performances for these occasions. So it was no surprise to see Morsy and Kandil top the standings in the Fencing Ranking Round.
The host nation added all four available points in the Bonus Round to their tally, refusing to give their rivals a glimmer of hope.
Their nearest challengers on the piste were Ludovica Montecchia and Alice Rinaudo of Italy, Iryna Khokhlova and Valeriya Permykina of Ukraine and Mexico.
Swimming
The queens of the pool were Korea (Kim/Kim), with a time of 2min 03.91sec, but there was no major advantage gained as they were less than 1sec quicker than Italy (Montecchia/Rinaudo) and less than 2sec faster than China (Wang/Xie).
Laser Run
Egypt (Morsy/Kandil) started with a 14sec cushion over Italy (Montecchia/Rinaudo) with Korea (Kim/Kim) 6sec further behind and Mexico (Arceo/Oliver) on the shoulders of the incumbent bronze medallists.
Indeed, the best performers in the Laser Run turned out to be Mexico (Arceo/Oliver) as the Tokyo 2020 Olympian team-mates timed an impressive 13:50.
Had the hosts been a bit more sluggish, it might well have cost them gold but Egypt (Morsy/Kandil) delivered the second-best time of the day (14:05) as they secured the coveted title of world champion to delight their fans.
With Italy (Montecchia/Rinaudo) struggling to maintain their challenge, Korea (Kim/Kim) took full advantage and secured bronze with a time of 14:23.
Medallists’ reaction
Silver medallist Oliver (MEX) said: “We are very happy with this result. We were planning on giving our best for this relay and it ended up successful. I ran fine but I rushed my shooting.”
Team-mate Arceo (MEX) added: “We were Women’s Relay world champions in 2019 together and then the COVID-19 pandemic happened and it hit us hard, although in 2021 we still ended up in 4th place, very close from getting a medal. So yes, we’re very happy to get silver today and we’ll give our best next year to get gold!”
Bronze medallist Sehee Kim (KOR) said: “We were excited after the victory by our Men’s Relay team yesterday and we prepared well.
“Fencing was sometimes good and sometimes bad, Riding was good and Swimming was nice. In Laser Run we had some problems but we won the bronze medal and we are happy and excited.
“I thank my team-mate Sunwoo Kim so much. It’s midnight in Korea but we already received so many congratulations,” Sehee explained according to the UIPM official website.
Sunwoo Kim (KOR) added: “We have been team-mates for 10 years so we trust each other a lot, and we are good partners and good competitors. Thank you so much to my partner, it’s very nice.”
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