POSTED: Friday September 3rd 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Russian Dominance at Modern Pentathlon World Championships

22 year old Serguei Karyakin (RUS) has become the 50th ever Modern Pentathlon Senior World Champion today in Chengdu, China.

22 year old Serguei Karyakin (RUS) has caused a major upset to become the 50th ever Modern Pentathlon Senior World Champion today in Chengdu, China.

Karyakin, the 2008 World Junior Champion who has never won a major senior international event was the most consistent athlete of the day finishing 2nd in the fencing, 9th in the swim and tamed his horse perfectly around the course to gain the perfect score of 1200 in the riding event. This meant he had a lead of 9 seconds going in the combined event which he never looked like losing to cruise to a historic victory.

“It’s very cool to be the 50th World Champion. I was most pleased with combined and fencing today. I had had some trouble with my fencing halfway through the season, so I’m really pleased that I did so well here as the best fencers are always at the World Championships.”

Alexander Lesun (RUS) who was making his World Championships debut made it a Russian One Two by claiming the Silver Medal on the back of an extraordinary fencing display, winning the discipline by 3 bouts. However poor riding made him slip behind Karakin prior to the Combined Event and he was never able to catch him.

“I was very proud to achieve such a good result as the athletes here are very strong. I especially love fencing and after the swim I was most focused and worried about the ride. Following the ride I was just concentrating on the combined event for a spot on the podium.”

World #5 Justinas Kinderis (LTU) put in a consistent performance all day to win the bronze medal, after he was able to overcome local hero Zhongrong Cao (CHN) in the final lap. He also was part of the Lithuanian team who won the teams gold.

“It’s been a long day. My muscles have died but my mind is happy. I’m also really pleased with the team medal, hearing my national anthem on the podium was very touching.”

The surprise of the day was the disappointing performance of 2010 European Champion and pre event favorite David Svoboda (CZE). Svoboda put in a poor fence and swim and ended back in 17th position. However his team mate’s strong performances helped him get the silver medal in the team’s event.

“I had not felt good since this morning, maybe jet lag, but I felt I had no strength or energy. I wasn’t aggressive enough in the fence, which is very important for my style of fencing. I felt like a fly in the swim so knew that it was not my day. I just wanted to bring enough points for the team and we are very happy that we could be second.”

World #1 and defending Champion Adam Marosi (HUN) also produced disappointing results according to his high standard to finish back in 13th position. However his performance along with this team mates resulted in a bronze medal for Hungary in the teams event.

“I came here to get the Gold medal, but sometimes you are up and sometimes you are down. I had a fever before the semi-final and suffered an injury during the final bout of fencing. But this is life and I wasn’t too disappointed.”

Final Standings:
Individual
• Gold: Serguei Karyakin (RUS)
• Silver: Aleksander Lesun (RUS)
• Bronze: Justinas Kinderis (LTU)
Team
• Gold: Lithuania
• Silver: Czech Republic
• Bronze: Hungary
Stay tuned for the Women’s Final which begins 9am local time (+8 GMT) with live updates on Pentathlon.org.

For more information contact UIPM Communications Manager Matt Pound on +86 147 8042 0692 or communications@pentathlon.org.

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Keywords · Modern Pentathlon · World Championships · China · Chengdu · UIPM · Lesun · Kinderis · Karyakin

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Name: Matt Pound
Organization: Union Internationale De Pentathlon Moderne - UIPM
Email:
Phone: +377 9777 8555
URL: http://www.pentathlon.org

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