UIPM 2022 Pentathlon World Championships: Choong (GBR) moves into pole position

• Jung (KOR) and Uibel (GER) match Olympic champion’s Fencing tally
• Jun (KOR) wins Semi-final but faces huge points deficit on Super Saturday
• France team-mates Prades, Patte and Belaud cruise into Men’s Final

Tokyo 2020 Olympic champion Joseph Choong of Great Britain will be the man to beat on Super Saturday after performing strongly in the Semi-finals at the UIPM 2022 Pentathlon World Championships.

Choong (GBR) won 24 of his 35 bouts in the Fencing Ranking Round to strengthen his hopes of winning a first world title. Two other final qualifiers – Jinhwa Jung of Korea and Pele Uibel of Germany – also managed 24V/11D, while Mohamed Elgendy of Egypt recorded 23V/12D.

Semi-final A was won by Woongtae Jun (KOR), a remarkable achievement given his unexpectedly poor Fencing performance (13V/22D, plus four bonus points). The Tokyo 2020 Olympic bronze medallist and world No.1 crossed the line to qualify for the Men’s Final at the same time as Balazs Szep of Hungary and Uibel (GER), with two-time world champion Valentin Belaud of France only 1sec behind.

In Semi-final B, team-mates Valentin Prades (FRA) and Christopher Patte (FRA) led a mass finish with Choong (GBR) and Jung (KOR) in the chasing pack only 1sec behind. Tokyo 2020 Olympic silver medallist Ahmed Elgendy (EGY) was beside his younger brother in this group.

With an exceptional Laser Run time of 10min 07.10sec, Martin Vlach of Czech Republic almost caught up with the pack and did enough to earn a Super Saturday spot as the fastest non-automatic qualifier.

Remarkably, only seven nations will be represented in the Men’s Final after strong team performances by Hungary (four qualifiers), Czech Republic, France and Germany (three each), Egypt and Korea (two each). Choong (GBR) will be the only finalist not to be accompanied by a team-mate.

The UIPM 2022 Pentathlon World Championships continue tomorrow (July 29) with the Women’s Semi-finals, followed by the Women’s and Men’s Finals on July 30 and the Mixed Relay on July 31.

Live stream of all Semi-finals and Finals is available on UIPM.TV and all competition results are available at the UIPM website.

The 18 athletes who qualified for the Men’s Final are: