UIPM 2024 Pentathlon World Championships: Jawaid (SWE) the one to catch in Women’s Final

• 25 Fencing wins give Swedish athlete a 10-point advantage over Korea duo 
• French (GBR) and Abdelmaksoud (EGY) lurking in chasing pack 
• Semi-final success for Seong (KOR) and Erdos (HUN) 

Marlena Jawaid of Sweden took a 10-point lead into the Women’s Final after an enthralling day of Semi-final action at the UIPM 2024 Pentathlon World Championships.

Jawaid (SWE) stood out in the Fencing Ranking Round with 25 victories from her 35 bouts, and then qualified serenely through Semi-final B.

Her nearest challengers when the Final begins on Super Saturday will be Korea duo Seungmin Seong and Unju Kim, each of whom scored 23V/12D, with Tokyo 2020 Olympic champion Kate French of Great Britain and Salma Abdelmaksoud of Egypt only five points further adrift.

Seong (KOR), winner of two silver medals on the UIPM 2024 Pentathlon World Cup circuit, won Semi-final A with French (GBR) and Blanka Guzi of Hungary immediately behind her. Home favourite Mingyu Zhang of China won the battle for the ninth and last place in the Final by just 1sec from Uliana Batashova (AIN).

A higher-scoring Semi-final B was dominated by Rita Erdos (HUN), who finished 6sec ahead of Jawaid (SWE) with Ilke Ozyuksel of Türkiye crossing in 3rd. This time it was Sunwoo Kim (KOR) who claimed 9th place with Elodie Clouvel of France finishing an agonising 10th.

Hungary and Korea each qualified four athletes for the Women’s Final, setting up an intriguing battle for the Team gold medal alongside the individual prizes.

The UIPM 2024 Pentathlon World Championships continues tomorrow (June 14) with the Men’s Semi-finals, with the Finals following on June 15 and the Mixed Relay concluding proceedings on June 16.

Live stream of the Semi-finals and Finals is available on UIPM TV, with the Finals also available to watch free of charge on YouTube. All competition results are available at the UIPM website and via the UIPM Central app.

The 18 qualified athletes for the Women’s Final are: