UIPM 2015 Senior World Championships: Pavlo Tymoshchenko is the new World Champion

BERLIN, GERMANY - Pavlo Tymoshchenko (UKR) is the new World Champion after winning gold in the Men's Individual event at the UIPM 2015 Senior World Championships in Berlin today.

Tymoshchenko shrugged off a 27-second deficit in the Combined Event to beat defending champion Aleksander Lesun (RUS), who claimed silver ahead of bronze medallist Andriy Fedechko (UKR).

Tymoshchenko took the top prize with the fastest Combined Event time of the day, but his victory looked far from certain after two events. The Ukrainian was a disappointing 31st in the first discipline of the day, Swimming, and 15th in the Fencing. But a 2nd place in the Riding set up his grandstand finish.

Lesun finished four seconds behind Tymoshchenko and Fedechko a further 10 seconds back. The three athletes not only claimed the medals and the plaudits on the podium but earned automatic qualification for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games with their performances today.

Tymoshchenko said that booking his passage to Rio felt "amazing" but admitted he thought he had blown his chance after the Fencing.

"I didn't believe that I could do it," he said. "After the fencing, I thought I had lost because I made too many mistakes. I didn't believe it was possible."

Despite being pipped at the post, Lesun (RUS) said he was delighted with his medal and that it was more important than last year's gold.

"Due to an injury I couldn't perform well and it was a difficult season for me," he said. "But I'm happy to return to the podium. Now I can start preparing for the most important competition in the calendar."

Third-placed Fedechko (UKR) said: "I didn't expect to win a medal, but I worked very hard and am very happy with the result."

The day started with a fantastic swim from Amro El Geziry (EGY), who confirmed his capabilities in the pool with first place.

El Geziry - second in last year's World Championships - retained top spot after taking 6th position in the Fencing but a horrendous outing in the Riding ended his podium hopes. It was the riding where Tymoshchenko clawed back points with a clean run but Han Jiahao (CHN) took a six-second lead going in to the Combined Event over the rest of the pack with Lesun (RUS) in second.

In the Combined, Lesun moved up to first in the second shoot but was overtaken by Tymoshchenko after the final shoot.

Valentin Belaud (FRA) was fourth and Lee Woo Jin (KOR) fifth.

Also celebrating were the Korean athletes who won gold in the Men's Team event. Woo Jin LEE, Woongtae JUN and Woojin HWANG stood on top of the podium alongside silver medallists Russia (Aleksander LESUN, Ilia FROLOV and Egor PUCHKAREVSKIY) and bronze medallists Poland (Jaroslaw SWIDERSKI, Michal GRALEWSKI and Szymon STASKIEWICZ).

UIPM President Dr Klaus Schormann was thrilled with the excitement of the final and congratulated the athletes, who had to contend with temperatures in the mid-30s in Berlin.

"There was enormous heat, so what the athletes have shown in these conditions was unbelievable," Schormann said. "And again the strongest athletes were on the podium."

He added: "It was a great show. Everything went properly so we have to say congratulations to the organisers and to all who have been involved."

Follow all the action of this UIPM 2015 Senior World Championships with our live results and our live-streaming of the Women's Individual Final tomorrow at www.pentathlon.org, our updates through Facebook at www.facebook.com/modpen and Twitter at https://twitter.com/UIPM_HQ