UIPM 2024 Pentathlon World Championships: Bohm and Szep (HUN) well set ahead of Men’s Final

• Pentathlon World Cup Final winner Bohm (HUN) targets dream double
• Team-mates Szep (HUN) and Demeter (HUN) also in medal contention
• Chasing pack includes two-time champion Belaud (FRA) and Olympic medallist Jun (KOR)

Hungary will lead the medal charge in the Men’s Final at the UIPM 2024 Pentathlon World Championships with Csaba Bohm and Balazs Szep at the vanguard.

Fresh from winning gold in the UIPM 2024 Pentathlon World Cup Final, Bohm (HUN) started his campaign for the world title in the best possible way by coming strongly in the Fencing Ranking Round and safely navigating his Semi-final

Bohm (HUN) managed 22 victories from his 34 valid bouts in a round disrupted by a shoulder injury sustained by Tokyo 2020 Olympic silver medallist Ahmed Elgendy of Egypt, who now faces a race to be fit for Paris 2024.

Szep (HUN) scored 21 touches to keep the pressure on his team-mate – with Bence Demeter (HUN) keeping alive the possibility of a Hungarian 1-2-3 with 19 successes.

Three athletes – Kamil Kasperczak of Poland, Marek Grycz of Czechia and Soengjin Kim of Korea – are also strongly in contention after each scoring 20V/14D.

And the chasing pack includes luminaries such as two-time world champion Valentin Belaud of France and team-mate Jean-Baptiste Mourcia, Tokyo 2020 bronze medallist Woongtae Jun (KOR) and team-mate Changwan Seo (KOR).

After a dominant season, only one Egyptian athlete reached the Men’s Final, leaving Moutaz Mohamed with the chance to reinforce his Olympic selection credentials after Mohanad Shaban (EGY) withdrew with a calf injury and Mohamed Elgendy (EGY) exited at the Semi-final stage.

Seo (KOR), gold medallist at UIPM 2024 Pentathlon World Cup Ankara, won Semi-final A by 1sec ahead of Szep (HUN), with Fabian Liebig of Germany competing strongly to cross alongside Mourcia (FRA) and Taishu Sato of Japan.

Charles Brown (GBR) had moved into the top nine during the race but a freeze at the final shoot left him unable to catch Kim (KOR) for the 9th and final place.

All nine qualifiers in Semi-final B finished very close to each other, with Belaud (FRA), Mohamed (EGY), Jun (KOR), Shuai Luo of China and Bohm (HUN) equalling Seo (KOR) with the highest scores of the round (1,198 points).

Having started the Laser Run close to the front, Joseph Choong (GBR) – Tokyo 2020 Olympic gold medallist and world champion in both 2022 and 2023 – faded and was forced to accept 10th place like his team-mate Brown (GBR).

Having each qualified four athletes for the Women’s Final, an exceptional competition continued for Korea and Hungary with three male athletes from each nation going into the last 18 on Super Saturday.

The UIPM 2024 Pentathlon World Championships reaches a climax tomorrow (June 15) with the Women’s and Men’s Finals, with 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 Men’s Final are: