UIPM 2022 Pentathlon World Cup Ankara: Jun (KOR) fences way into another Final

• Olympic bronze medallist takes slender lead into Super Saturday
• Sukharev (KAZ) and Choong (GBR) also impress in Semi-finals
• France, Hungary and Korea qualify three athletes apiece

Tokyo 2020 Olympic bronze medallist Woongtae Jun of Korea will again be the man to beat on Super Saturday at UIPM 2022 Pentathlon World Cup Ankara.

After setting a new world record last time out in Albena (BUL), the five-time World Cup winner performed strongly once again in the Fencing Ranking Round, scoring an exceptional 26V/4D.

That performance enabled the 26-year-old to cruise through Semi-final A, crossing the line first alongside team-mate Changwan Seo (KOR) with a clutch of athletes just behind, led by Olympic champion Joseph Choong of Great Britain and Csaba Bohm of Hungary.

Semi-final B was less of a logjam, with Vladislav Sukharev of Kazakhstan hitting the finish 5sec ahead of Giorgio Malan of Italy with Mohamed Elgendy of Egypt a further second behind.

Other notable names in the 18-strong Men’s Final line-up will be reigning world champion Adam Marosi (HUN) and three-time Pentathlon World Cup Final winner Valentin Prades of France – each of whom will have two compatriots for company in the Final.

Jun (KOR) will compete alongside Seo and Jinhwa Jung (KOR) in the Final after scoring 26V/9D in the Fencing Ranking Round, one more victory than Sukharev (KAZ) and two more than Hamad (EGY).

After his comeback silver medal in Albena (BUL), Choong (GBR) will be poised for a shot at gold tomorrow after scoring 23V/12D – as did Prades (FRA).

UIPM 2022 Pentathlon World Cup Ankara comes to a climax tomorrow (June 11) with the Women’s and Men’s Finals followed by the Mixed Relay on Sunday, June 12.

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 qualified athletes for the Men's Final are: