Asian Games 2023: Zhang Mingyu successfully defends women's modern pentathlon gold, Jun Woongtae takes men's title with Paris 2024 quotas secured
Zhang also helped hosts People's Republic of China to women's team gold, meaning the 21-year-old now has three career Asian Games gold medals. Joint-world-record-holder Jun overcame a 32-second deficit to win men's gold. Ten athletes secured Olympic quotas for their national federations.
Modern Pentathlon
At just 21 years old, Zhang Mingyu is already a three-time Asian Games champion in modern pentathlon after claiming victory in the women's individual event at the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, People's Republic of China, on Sunday (24 September).
In front of a wild cheering home crowd, Zhang – who had begun the final laser-run round in third, 30 seconds behind teammate Bian Yufei – took advantage of Bian's poor shooting to overtake both her and Kim Sun-woo of the Republic of Korea.
She completed the laser run in 11:57.58, the third-fastest time of all athletes, and crossed the line first in the pursuit-format laser run to take gold with a total score of 1406 points.
Zhang's performance, added to those of Bian and the third-best Chinese athlete Zhong Xiuting, also nabbed the hosts the women's team gold medal. Having won gold in Jakarta-Palembang aged just 16 in 2018, Zhang has now added two golds to her impressive collection at such a young age.
Kim managed to overtake Bian with the latter's misses on the range, winning silver (1386 points). Bian held on for bronze (1374).
In the men's event, pre-Games favourite Jun Woongtae of the Republic of Korea – one of three men who jointly hold the world record of 1534 points – dominated in the laser run to overturn a 32-second deficit and take the gold on 1508 points.
His teammate Lee Jihun led heading into the final segment, but mistakes in his shooting cost him. Lee held off a charging Li Shuhuan of China, 39 seconds behind at the start, to earn silver (1492); Li taking bronze (1484).
The event was an Olympic qualifying event, with the top five finishers (maximum one per National Olympic Committee or NOC) obtaining Paris 2024 quotas. These were secured by Zhang, Kim, Uchida Misaki of Japan, Yelena Potapenko of Kazakhstan and Alise Fakhrutdinova of Uzbekistan on the women's side, and Jun, Li, Sato Taishu of Japan, Georgiy Boroda-Dudochkin of Kazakhstan, and Phurit Yohuang of Thailand.
Although the 10 athletes obtained a nominative quota, NOCs have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective NOC teams at the Olympic Games. Athletes' participation at the Paris Games depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation at Paris 2024.