UIPM 2024 Pentathlon Junior World Championships: France finish with stunning Mixed Relay gold

• Cazaly & Lavillat (FRA) come from behind to secure second title of the week
• Germany also beat host nation Egypt to silver medal in Alexandria (EGY)
• Second medal for Khalil (EGY), one of five new world record-holders

France spoiled the Egyptian farewell party as Louison Cazaly and Diego Lavillat won gold in the Mixed Relay on the final day of the UIPM 2024 Pentathlon Junior World Championships.

France (Cazaly/Lavillat) were inferior to Farida Khalil and Mazen Shaban of Egypt in the first three disciplines but when it mattered most, they pulled out a huge Laser Run to take the world title.

Pedestrian shooting from the Egyptians cost them in the final lap as Esther Fernandez Donda and Tim Leh of Germany also punished Khalil & Shaban to win the silver and force the host nation to settle for bronze.

Like in last year’s competition, Korea (Sumin Shin & Hanseong Kim) missed out on a Mixed Relay medal in 4th place as Hungary (Zora Zeman & Zsombor Tarkanyi) came 5th and Italy (Teresa Gioia & Edoardo Ventricini) filled out the top six.

Egypt did have the consolation of finishing on top of the competition medal table, thanks to three gold medals, a silver and two bronze.

Mixed Relay success completed a fine week for Cazaly (FRA) as she secured her second gold, having been part of the Women’s Team champions 24 hours earlier. Leh and Fernandez Donda won Germany’s third medal.

Across a highly entertaining six days of action, the world’s best Under 22 pentathlon athletes combined to set five new junior world records:

• Women’s Fencing – 279 points (30V) – Viktoriia Sazonova (AIN)
• Women’s Obstacle – 316 points (0:32.41) – Farida Khalil (EGY)
• Men’s Overall – 1,544 points – Moutaz Mohamed (EGY)
• Men’s Obstacle – 335 points (0:22.52) – Moustafa Abouamer (EGY)
• Men’s Swimming (25m pool) – 1:49.13 – Matteo Bovenzi (Italy)

 

Medallists’ Reaction

Gold medallist Cazaly (FRA) said: “We are on top of the world. I am very glad to do this with Diego because it’s my last Junior year and I wanted to finish my Juniors well.

“I was very sad about my result yesterday, the Laser Run was very hard, so today I wanted to take revenge. I won the gold, which is even better, so I am very happy.

“It’s very good to have the Olympics in France because we’ll be in our home country. It’s crazy to have the Olympics at home and we hope that our seniors will be very good. We’ll be there for them.”

Team-mate Lavillat (FRA) added: “I felt very good in the running. There were a lot of stakes in the Laser Run. I saw Egypt in front of me. I shot very well so, it’s good.”

Silver medallist Leh (GER) said: “I had quite a good last shooting and then I came out, saw I was second with the French guy in front of me. My legs surprisingly felt good so I just started to sprint, but shout out to the French guy because he was even faster than me.

“We’re super satisfied with getting silver here. Esther’s done so many Laser Runs she was just a professional. She did a really good job and even when I was shooting, I could hear her say ‘focus, do the job’.

“I tried to stay in my lane, focus on my shooting and then work it in the running.”

Bronze medallist Shaban (EGY) added: “Farida gave all that she had. The Fencing and Shooting were good. In the Running, we were very tired because it was a very hard race yesterday.”

Fencing

Leh (GER) had been the best fencer in the Men’s Final and continued his fine form along with the 2021 Women’s Relay gold medallist Fernandez Donda (GER). The duo came up with 32 victories and 244 points with the addition of four bonus points.

Familiar faces Egypt (Khalil/Shaban) and France (Cazaly/Lavillat), however, did not concede much ground to the Germans as they collected 31 and 30 wins respectively.

 

Obstacle

The course had been dominated by Egyptians all week with two new world records set, therefore it was unsurprising to see Egypt (Khalil/Shaban) top the discipline again.

They took away 300 points from Obstacle in another lightning-fast time of 1:00.19, with Hungary (Zeman/Tarkanyi) next-best in 1:05.03 and Italy (Gioia/Ventricini) also standing out with 1:06.25.

Swimming

Swimming was a much tighter affair, as Malgorzata Karbownik and Maciej Klimek of Poland tied with Egypt (Khalil/Shaban) with 313 points accrued. The Poles touched first by less than half a second, 1:58.65 to 1:58.99.

It was even closer for third as Anastasija Kancyte and Lukas Gaudiesius of Lithuania finished in the top three with a time of 2:00.88, 0.07sec ahead of Italy (Gioia/Ventricini).

 

Laser Run

After their form all week, in front of a vociferous home crowd, Egypt (Khalil/Shaban) may have expected to win another gold medal but France (Cazaly/Lavillat) had other ideas.

The pair had been quietly consistent all day, never finishing outside the top ten before the Laser Run. Still, they had their work cut out with them starting 36sec behind Egypt and Cazaly (FRA) was overtaken in the first lap by Zeman (HUN) Hungary and Fernandez Donda (GER).

But it was the shooting that stood France apart from the rest of the crowd, with Cazaly (FRA) setting the standard so high that she cut the lead of Khalil (EGY) 11sec at the handover. It gave the perfect platform for Lavillat (FRA) who had the superior engine and shooting to Shaban (EGY) to wrap up gold.

Leh (GER) also shot more accurately to take his chance, racing away to win silver.

Watch and follow

The UIPM 2024 Pentathlon Junior World Championships has now concluded and the next competition is the UIPM 2024 Pentathlon Under 17 World Championships in Caldas da Rainha (POR) from September 9-15.

Replays from the UIPM 2024 Junior Pentathlon World Championships are available to subscribers on UIPM.TV where annual packages cost €14.99.

Visit the UIPM website or download UIPM Central from your app store to keep track of live results, and follow World Pentathlon on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X or YouTube throughout the season for additional content.

Rank	Team	Nation	Points
1	CAZALY Louison LAVILLAT Diego	FRA	1358
2	FERNANDEZ DONDA Esther LEH Tim	GER	1353
3	KHALIL Farida SHABAN Mazen	EGY	1347
4	SHIN Sumin KIM Hanseong	KOR	1334
5	ZEMAN Zora TARKANYI Zsombor	HUN	1325
6	GIOIA Teresa VENTRICINI Edoardo	ITA	1287
7	KARBOWNIK Malgorzata KLIMEK Maciej	POL	1257
8	KANCYTE Anastasija GAUDIESIUS Lukas	LTU	1215
9	LI Ming Ke CHOW Connor	CAN	1172
10	SEVILLA Juliana Shane ROMAN Jessly Reyan	PHI	1147
11	SHIH Yi-jing WU Chi-yen	TPE	1134
12	THOMATOS Tatiana SCHOEMAN Johan Coenraad	RSA	1132
13	CALIIKAN Ebrar TASYARAN Kivanc	TUR	886