UIPM 2021 Pentathlon Junior World Championships: Chekan & Kovalchuk (UKR) win Men’s Relay

Eastern European nations dominated day two of the UIPM 2021 Pentathlon Junior World Championships as Vladyslav Chekan and Yuriy Kovalchuk of Ukraine claimed the Men’s Relay title.

Ukraine (Chekan/Kovalchuk) brought it home after an intense battle with Uladzislau Nestserau and Maksim Maruk of Belarus, while and Andras Gall and Bence Viczian of Hungary came from behind to earn bronze in Alexandria (EGY).

It meant that six different nations won medals in the first two days of the competition, but Egypt will be among those targeting the podium during the individual and team finals – the host nation finished 4th today thanks to Eiad El Kashef and Mohammed Elgendy.

More than 250 athletes aged 21 and under are taking part in the last global competition before the rescheduled Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Winners’ reaction

Chekan (UKR) said: “We feel so excited. We’re so happy because we had this dream since 2019 before the Coronavirus, and we talked about it and dreamed it about for two years and now finally we did it.

“We won Swimming by 2sec ahead of the other guys and then Fencing was good, and we had a beautiful Riding event with a clear round. In Laser Run my shoot was good and my friend Yuriy’s shoot was great. We had to shoot well and we did it.

“It’s our first time in Egypt and the first two days were very hot, but today we felt beautiful all day.

“We will compete individually and we want to win the team event.”

Kovalchuk (UKR) added: “It was a wonderful moment. I had dreamed about being on the podium in 1st place in the World Championships and now my partner Vlad and I are world champions.

“The Laser Run was perfect because we shot and ran very well. I think we did all disciplines well.”

Swimming

Ukraine (Chekan/Kovalchuk) started the day as they meant to go on, creating an early lead thanks to a Swimming time of 1:47.15.

Ugo Fleurot and Mathis Rochat of France were next-best in the pool, just 0.01sec faster than Juseong Moon and Minseo Lee of Korea.

Fencing

Egypt (El Kashef / Elgendy) brought cheer to local spectators as they dominated the Fencing Ranking Round, scoring an impressive 25V/9D. But the Eastern Europeans didn’t let them get too far away, with Ukraine (Chekan/Kovalchuk) and Belarus (Nestserau/Maruk) each scoring 23 victories and the former adding the last two points in the Bonus Round.

Riding

A high standard of horsemanship was on show, with six duos scoring 290+ led by Belarus (Nestserau/Maruk, 298), Hungary (Gall/Viczian, 295) and Federico Alessandro and Stefano Frezza of Italy (294).

Ukraine (Chekan/Kovalchuk) also evaded any serious damage to their overall position, with the result that they joined Belarus (Nestserau/Maruk) on 872 points.

Laser Run

With the top two teams setting off in unison, there was only a 10sec starting gap between the rest of the field – led by the host nation.

Running first for Egypt was Elgendy (EGY), younger brother of 2018 world junior champion Ahmed Elgendy (EGY), who is expected to compete later in the week as he prepares for his debut Olympic Games.

The local favourites competed well in the first half of the race but fell victim to a surge by Hungary (Gall/Viczian), who had started 20sec behind them but finished 19sec ahead of them and almost upgraded to silver.

In the end Ukraine (Chekan/Kovalchuk) pulled clear to win gold by 9sec from Belarus (Nestserau/Maruk), while Egypt (El Kashef / Elgendy) were followed home by France (Fleurot/Rochat) and Italy (Alessandro/Frezza).

Watch and follow

The UIPM 2021 Junior World Championships in Alexandria (EGY) runs from July 12-18 and continues on Wednesday, July 14 with the qualification round for the Women’s Final (July 16).

Visit the UIPM website or download “UIPM Central” from your app store to keep track of live results throughout the competition.

Follow World Pentathlon on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, VK or Weibo throughout the season for additional content.

 

Competition schedule

July 14: Women’s Qualification

July 15: Men’s Qualification

July 16: Women’s Final 

July 17: Men’s Final

July 18: Mixed Relay