UIPM 2023 Pentathlon World Cup Cairo: Gulyas (HUN) and Elgendy (EGY) kick off season in style

• World No.1 Gulyas (HUN) stings Clouvel (FRA) to win Women’s Final
• Comeback gold for Olympic medallist Elgendy (EGY) after battle with Bohm (HUN)
• Bronze medals for Abdelmaksoud (EGY) and Vlach (CZE) in season-opener

 

Michelle Gulyas of Hungary and Ahmed Elgendy of Egypt came from behind to start the season with superb individual victories at UIPM 2023 Pentathlon World Cup Cairo.

World No.1 Gulyas (HUN) took control of another Super Saturday as she overturned the lead of Elodie Clouvel of France to win the Women’s Final. Clouvel (FRA) fought hard to hold on to silver ahead of Salma Abdelmaksoud (EGY), who claimed her second consecutive bronze in the season-opener.

Later, Tokyo 2020 Olympic silver medallist Elgendy (EGY) started the Laser Run almost half a minute off the lead but managed his race perfectly to win the Men’s Final ahead of silver medallist Csaba Bohm (HUN) and Martin Vlach of Czech Republic, who made up five places to claim bronze.

Medallists’ reaction

Women’s champion Gulyas (HUN) said: “My technical disciplines were very good – Fencing and Shooting were really amazing, I couldn’t have wished for better. My physical disciplines not so good, but it was OK because I could compensate with my technical disciplines.

“I have a very good mental coach, and my coaching team is also very good at helping in my preparation for competitions. The main competition is still further away this year, but hopefully I can keep this up.”

Silver medallist Clouvel (FRA) added: “In the last two weeks I had COVID, and my feeling was not too good. In my head, I wanted to be stronger, but I am so happy and I congratulate the girls because it was a good game today, a good competition.

“I’m very happy I could start my season this way and I thank my team, my coach, my partner, my family and Valentin – and see you in Ankara!

“I am preparing for Paris, and I’m focused step by step, competition by competition. My team is good, my coach is good and they have confidence and trust in me.”

Bronze medallist Abdelmaksoud (EGY) said: “Thank you to my coaches and my family and everybody who helped me. The competition was very hard, but I started Laser Run 3rd and I’m very happy to finish 3rd.”

Men’s champion Elgendy (EGY) said: “First I’m very happy to get this medal in my home country and in front of this crowd and my family, friends and all my coaches. Also I’m happy to be back on the podium a year and a half after the Olympics, because of injury.

“Today I’m so happy and so grateful to be back. Four years ago I won the gold medal here in Egypt, in my first senior World Cup in 2019, and I’m so happy to get my second gold medal here today.”

Silver medallist Bohm (HUN) added: “Both Elgendys are really strong athletes and it was an honour to have another battle with one of them. I had some struggles with my shooting and Elgendy was really great in the shooting, and that’s why he always had the lead and I had to catch him up.

“I gave everything, absolutely everything, and it was hard both mentally and physically. I’m happy with the result.

“You could see my sad face after the shooting, because there was a Peridot indoor competition recently in Hungary and I messed up my shooting. All of my team around me are working on my shooting and I shot pretty well in the Qualification and Semi-final.”

Bronze medallist Vlach (CZE) said: “I really hoped I could make it to the top three. The guys in front of me were just too fast for me today.”

Asked about the secret to his consistent Laser Run speed, he said: “I can’t mention just one thing, it’s a continuous process that takes years and years. My coaches know what to do so I just follow their instructions.”

 

Women’s Final

Riding

Six athletes – including world No.1 Gulyas (HUN) and world champion Elena Micheli of Italy – led the charge with a maximum score of 300 points, while local hopefuls Malak Ismail (EGY) and Abdelmaksoud (EGY) only incurred minor time penalties.

Clouvel (FRA) lost seven points to her chief rivals with one obstacle dislodged, but 293 enabled her to remain in the overall lead. There were no eliminations but Olha Klunnikova of Ukraine was sadly unable to start the Final after winning her Semi-final on Thursday.

Fencing

Her performance in the Ranking Round had given Clouvel (FRA) a 15-point Fencing cushion over nearest rivals Gulyas (HUN) and Marie Oteiza (FRA), and she did everything she could to maintain her supremacy in the Bonus Round. Namely, by defeating Gulyas (HUN) in the final bout for an extra four points.

By then, Gulyas (HUN) had added four points of her own with two victories, and Micheli (ITA) also notched three important wins. Ismail (EGY) was the best performer of the Bonus Round with four successes.

 

Swimming

The best performance at the Paul B Hannon Swimming Pool came not in the third but in the second of three heats – where Alice Sotero (ITA) set an irresistible pace.

After finishing 4th at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in 2021, Sotero (ITA) took time out to have a baby but is now very much back and her time of 2min 13.01sec brought her 284 points – five more than Clouvel (FRA) who won the final heat in 2:15.52, just ahead of Abelmaksoud (EGY) in 2:15.62.

Micheli (ITA) continued her upward momentum with 277 points while Gulyas (HUN) dropped back a little with 271.

 

Laser Run

The Laser Run featured a classic sting by Gulyas (HUN), who put merciless pressure on her adversary at every opportunity – and it worked.

Clouvel (FRA) started with a 16sec lead but Gulyas (HUN) cut it to 4sec at the first visit to the range and then overtook the Rio 2016 Olympic silver medallist at the second. The nerveless Hungarian showed exceptional consistency with all four shoots taking less than 9sec, while Clouvel (FRA) was above 15sec every time.

That wasn’t the end of the story, because with powerful running Clouvel (FRA) refused to give Gulyas (HUN) any sense of a victory lap, and she also fought back against Abdelmaksoud (EGY) every time she found herself back in 3rd after a shoot.

Outside of the medals story, Micheli (ITA) moved up from 7th to 4th with a solid performance, and while Sotero (ITA) pipped Ismail (EGY) on the line for 5th, the biggest surge came from 7th-placed Laura Heredia of Spain, whose 11:27.20 was comfortably the best Laser Run of the day. Marie Oteiza (FRA) completed the top eight.

Blanka Bauer (HUN) timed 11:41.80 while Gintare Venckauskaite of Lithuania recorded 11:45.10, but both were too far back among the 17 racers to advance.

Men’s Final

Riding

Only five athletes in the Men’s Final escaped without an obstacle penalty, but three of the maximum scorers looked like serious podium contenders – Vlach (CZE), Bohm (HUN) and Valentin Prades (FRA).

Four of the five Egyptians in the 18-strong field – as well as Pavlo Tymoshchenko of Ukraine and Valentin Belaud (FRA) – stayed very much in contention with 293 points, but there were some damaging concessions as Seo Changwan of Korea incurred 18 penalties, Pierre Dejardin (FRA) 28 and Ahmed Hamed (EGY) 30.

 

Fencing

Hamed (EGY) recovered some ground in the Fencing Bonus Round, with four victories adding eight points to his tally – a tally matched by Patrick Dogue of Germany. There were three wins for Emiliano Hernandez of Mexico, and Fencing winner Shaban (EGY) beat Tymoshchenko (UKR) in the final bout to claim his four-point bonus.

Shaban (EGY) came into the Bonus Round having scored an impressive 26V/9D in the Ranking Round, two more victories than Tymoshchenko (UKR) and five more than any other competitor, giving him a 25-point over the chasing pack before today’s showcase. His overall lead after Fencing was 14 points but it was back up to 25 after the penultimate discipline.

Swimming

As in the Women’s Final, the fastest performance came in Heat 2 and it was Elgendy (EGY) who posted the best time (2:02.65) to move into an ominous overall position of 3rd.

Bohm (HUN, 2:04.84) won the final heat from Shaban (EGY, 2:05.71), while Moutaz Mohamed (EGY) was 3rd-fastest in 2:05.27.

 

Laser Run

Starting with a 25sec lead, Shaban (EGY) knew that there was some serious Laser Run quality in pursuit, not least Bohm (HUN) and Elgendy (EGY) in 2nd and 3rd but also others including Vlach (CZE), lying in 8th with a 39sec deficit to correct.

As many expected, the pressure was just a little too much for the inexperienced Shaban (EGY) and he was gradually worn down, overtaken by Elgendy (EGY) and Bohm (HUN) on the third shoot and by Vlach (CZE) at the start of the fifth run.

The second half of the race was a gripping race between Elgendy (EGY) and Bohm (HUN), the former moving in front with a series of sub-10sec shoots but then finding his rival coming back strongly on the 600m circuit. On the final lap, the pattern remained but this time Elgendy (EGY) had just enough stamina to pull away from Bohm (HUN) and become the home-town hero.

Behind them, Vlach (CZE) took his customary place at the top of the Laser Run standings with a 10:01.60 to make up 6sec on Elgendy (EGY, 10:07.90) and 11sec on Bohm (HUN, 10:12.90).

There was some serious experience outside the top four places as positions 5-8 were claimed by Prades (FRA), Tymoshchenko (UKR), Taishu Sato of Japan and Belaud (FRA) respectively.

President’s reaction 

UIPM President Dr Klaus Schormann said: “Through the Qualification and Semi-finals and now the Finals, we’ve already had a great competition here at the first UIPM 2023 Pentathlon World Cup in the American University in Cairo.

“We saw that the athletes are really well prepared from the winter season and they have adapted to the new format that we will have in Paris 2024. This is very hard, but when you see the results it is so exciting. The media and all spectators and viewers who saw these two Finals could see that we are on the right track in preparation for the Games in Paris.

“For athletes this World Cup already counts in terms of qualification points for the World Cup Final in Ankara, where we will have the first direct qualification spots for the Olympic Games. I am quite happy and thankful to all the volunteers, sponsors, supporters and technicians who made it happen – and of course to the athletes for their high performance in a spirit of fairness that shows our sport is in a good position on the way to Paris.”

 

Watch and follow

UIPM 2023 Pentathlon World Cup Cairo concludes with the Mixed Relay on Sunday, May 12. Live coverage is available on UIPM TV and up-to-date results competitions can be found at the UIPM website and via the UIPM Central app.

The next competition on the calendar is UIPM 2023 Pentathlon World Cup Ankara, taking place in the capital city of Turkey from April 11-16.