44th WMC Modern Pentathlon – Competition Day 1 & 2

WARENDORF (GER) – The qualifications of the men’s competition started on September 21. The athletes were divided in 2 groups and had to perform three events: the 200m freestyle swimming race, the fencing competition (round-robin format, meaning each competitor will face all the other competitors of their group once) and the combined event (running and shooting) which is similar to the biathlon at the Winter Olympic Games, which combines cross-country skiing with rifle shooting. However, whereas biathletes carry their rifles while skiing, pentathletes do not carry their pistols while running. The 36 best pentathletes will be qualified for Saturday’s big Final.

In the group A, Valentin Belaud (FRA) took the lead with a total of 1131 points (16 victories/4 defeats in fencing, a time of 2:11,28 in swimming and 12:24,69 in Combined Event (CE)). Thanks to his performance, Belaud is leading the overall ranking (Group A and B). Behind the French pentathlete are two Polish representatives, Remigiusz Golis and Jaroslaw Swiderski both with 1093 points and the following respective results: 13V/7D (Fencing), 2:00,96 (Swimming) and 13:06,30 (CE) for Golis; 14V/6D (Fencing), 2:04,56 (Swimming) and 13:04,56 (CE) for Swiderski.

The detailed results of the Group A are available here.

In the Group B, Alessandro Colasanti (ITA - 12V/9D (Fencing), 2:07,37 (Swimming) and 12:35,04 (CE)) and Gustav Gustenau (AUT - 17V/4D (Fencing), 2:02,29 (Swimming) and 13:36,42 (CE)) managed to realize the best performance with a total of 1086 points while Maskim Kustov (RUS - 10V/11D (Fencing), 2:02,99 (Swimming) and 12:39,26 (CE)) and Pavel Tsikhanau (BLR - 10V/11D (Fencing), 2:11,62 (Swimming) and 12:13,62 (CE)) are both ranked 3^rd with 1078 points.

The detailed results of the Group B are available here.

The jumping test took place today, September 22 and all the participants had the opportunity to test the horses provided by the OC.

The women’s final competition will take place tomorrow, September 23, while the men’s final competition is scheduled for Saturday 24^th September.

For the live results: click here.

(Source: CISM Media & Communication Department)

(Pictures: Eddy Kellens)