UIPM 2024 Pentathlon World Cup Cairo: Egyptian delight as hosts deliver in Men's Semi-final

• France and Egypt lead the way with four Finalists each
• Patte (FRA) carries narrow lead into Super Saturday
• Nine nations represented in mouth-watering first final of season

Men’s Semi-final day at UIPM 2024 Pentathlon World Cup Cairo proved to be a drama-filled affair right to the very end and set the stage for a Super Saturday that is not to be missed.

The host nation was given plenty to get excited about throughout both of Friday’s two Semi-finals with a total of four Egyptian athletes safely progressing through the Final, the home charge led by Tokyo Olympics silver medallist Ahmed Elgendy and joint world No.1 Mohanad Shaban.

Not to be outdone, France saw its own cool-headed quartet navigate through the excitement of Friday to survive, with Christopher Patte (FRA) grabbing the early lead ahead of Super Saturday as he led the way with 24 Victories in the Fencing Ranking Round giving him a five-point lead over the rest of the field. Patte will be hunting a first individual podium finish since he stormed to gold at the same competition in 2022.

But the depth of talent in a star-studded field means that the destination of the prizes remains firmly up for grabs with rising Great Britain star Charlie Brown, Hungarian threat Csaba Bohm, Mexico’s World No.3 Emiliano Hernandez and perennial challenger Changwan Seo of Korea also among the 18 finalists.  

Semi-final A gave a signal of what was to come as France stormed ahead in the shape of Jean-Baptiste Mourcia (FRA) who led home Bohm (HUN), Brown (GBR) and Marvin Faly Dogue of Germany.

There was drama before the second Semi-final truly got going when reigning Olympic champion and joint world No.1, Joseph Choong (GBR) was forced to withdraw before the Swimming discipline as an injury precaution.

Moutaz Mohamed (EGY) didn’t let any distractions count against him as he led home a quartet at the head of the field which included Kamil Kasperczak of Poland, the fast-finishing Hernandez (MEX) and Pierre Dejardin (FRA). Seo (KOR) produced a scintillating Laser Run performance to snare the final Super Saturday ticket as he stormed through the field.

Pentathlon World Cup Cairo continues tomorrow (March 9) with the Men’s and Women’s Finals on Super Saturday and concludes with the Mixed Relay on March 10.

Live stream of the 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: