UIPM Modern Pentathlon World Championships 2024: Seong Seung-min and Csaba Bohm claim individual world crowns
Seong Seung-min of Republic of Korea and Hungary's Csaba Bohm claimed first individual world titles at the 2024 UIPM Modern Pentathlon World Championships in Zhengzhou, People's Republic of China on Saturday (15 June).
The action from the final opportunity to earn Paris 2024 Olympic qualification ranking points was streamed live on the Olympic Channel via Olympics.com and the official Olympics app for mobile devices. Paris quota spots* went to medallists whose National Olympic Committee had not already secured a maximum two quotas.
Seong edged out Blanka Guzi in a thrilling women’s final to obtain a second Olympic quota spot for Republic of Korea.
Marlena Jawaid led by 10 points after the semi-finals and preserved that advantage with an excellent performance in riding. Hungarian Guzi, who claimed her first World Cup win last month in Sofia, scored a perfect 300 to move up to seventh place.
Guzi improved further in the fencing bonus round before Jawaid lost her lead in the swim to Seong who scored 285 points to the Swede’s 270. Egypt’s Salma Abdelmaksoud also scored 285 to tie Jawaid for second place and leave her 11 points – equating to 11 seconds on the laser run - behind Seong. Guzi and Britain’s Kate French shared fifth place a further 21 seconds back.
Seong started strongly on the run, extending her lead, but took 18 seconds for her first shoot with Abdelmaksoud making up time. Guzi moved past Jawaid into third as the Swede struggled.
Guzi enjoyed a better third shoot than Abdelmaksoud and left the range just ahead of her Egyptian rival. She then set about trying to close on the Korean who arrived at the final shoot just five seconds in front.
Seong hit her first three out of five targets but then missed the fourth twice as Guzi had a perfect shoot. They left the range together, but Seong pulled clear inside the last 200m and just withstood a final surge from the Hungarian to win by under a second. It was her second gold of the week after she and Kim Sun-woo - who had secured a Paris quota at last year’s Asian Games - won the relay title on Monday.
The finish for bronze was just as dramatic with Abdelmaksoud falling metres from the line as she was passed by Hungary’s fast-finishing Rita Erdos who made up 10 places on the laser run. The Egyptian got back to her feet to take fourth ahead of neutral athlete Anastasiya Prokopenko.
Abdelmaksoud would have obtained a quota place on the day had she had taken third, but her fifth place on the UIPM Olympic Games Rankings will be good enough for a second Egyptian Paris 2024 quota. With Hungary having already obtained one quota spot previously, one more goes to Guzi with the other added to the nine quota berths from the Olympic Rankings.
Blanka Bauer's 10th place helped Hungary secure the team title ahead of Republic of Korea and Mexico.
*As National Olympic Committees have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective countries at the Olympic Games, athletes' participation at the Paris Games depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation at Paris 2024.
Csaba Bohm cruises home in world record as Hungary take men's one-two
Last month's World Cup Final winner Csaba Bohm led after the semi-finals which were overshadowed by a shoulder injury sustained by Egypt's Tokyo 2020 silver medallist Ahmed Elgendy in the fencing ranking round. Elgendy's participation at Paris 2024 is now very much in doubt.
Reigning world and Olympic champion Joe Choong also bowed out after finishing 10th in his semi-final with only the top nine making it through.
On Saturday, European Games bronze medallist Bohm extended his advantage thanks to a perfect 300 in riding. After the fencing bonus round, he remained 12 points clear of team-mate Balazs Szep with Poland's Kamil Kasperczak a further five points adrift.
Fine swims from Britain's Myles Pillage and Moutaz Mohamed of Egypt saw them move up the leaderboard to fourth and fifth respectively and within striking distance of the medals, but Bohm took a 20-second lead into the laser run.
Mohamed soon took Kasperczak for third, but a slow first shoot saw the Pole leave the range just in front. The Egyptian retook bronze medal position, but a 22-second shoot saw him drop to fifth behind Kasperczak and Korea's Tokyo bronze medallist Jun Woong-tae.
With the top two away and clear, the attention was on the battle for third with Mohamed again moving up into the medals on the track. A better shoot saw him get away in front of his two pursuers, but it was all change on the fourth and final trip to the range. Mohamed took almost 16 seconds to hit his five targets with Jun fully nine seconds quicker to get away in front.
Bohm crossed the line 27 seconds in front for a new world record score of 1551 points, 16 better than his own mark set at the World Cup Final, with Szep securing a second Olympic quota for Hungary.
Jun was over 10 seconds back in third with Mohamed facing a nervous wait to see if he receives one of Egypt's two spots in Paris. As Bohm and Jun had previously obtained quota spots, the nine berths allocated via the UIPM Olympic Games Rankings go up by two to 11.
Largely thanks to their one-two, Hungary took the men's team title ahead of Korea with Czechia rounding out the podium.
UIPM Modern Pentathlon World Championships 2024, 15 June 2024, Women's final results (top 10):
- Seong Seung-min (KOR) 1434
- Blanka Guzi (HUN) 1433
- Rita Erdos (HUN) 1418
- Salma Abdelmaksoud (EGY) 1413
- Anastasiya Prokopenko (INA) 1411
- Ilke Ozyuksel (TUR) 1396
- Marlena Jawaid (SWE) 1394
- Kim Sun-woo (KOR) 1391
- Kate French (GBR) 1387
- Blanka Bauer (HUN) 1378
UIPM Modern Pentathlon World Championships 2024, 15 June 2024, Men's final results (top 10):
- Csaba Bohm (HUN) 1551 WR
- Balazs Szep (HUN) 1524
- Jun Woong-tae (KOR) 1513
- Moutaz Mohamed (EGY) 1506
- Kamil Kasperczak (POL) 1500
- Luo Shuai (CHN) 1499
- Lukasz Gutkowski (POL) 1488
- Martin Vlach (CZE) 1487
- Sato Taishu (JPN) 1482
- Myles Pillage (GBR) 1477