Brice Loubet wins the men’s final at the FISU World University Modern Pentathlon Championship
BUDAPEST — On the first day of the FISU World University Modern Pentathlon Championship, it all came down to the Laser-Run in the men’s individual Tetrathlon competition. Comprised of four of the five disciplines of Modern Pentathlon: swimming, fencing, and a final combined event of running and shooting shooting stage, the Frenchman Brice Loubet surged past his closest competitors, the Egyptian Ahmed Elgendy and the Czech Lukas Svechota, by two and 11 seconds respectively to take the world university title in the Hungarian capital.
The one-day event began in the swimming pool for a 200 meter freestyle competition. In the pool, the Egyptian Elgendy was the quickest, clocking a time of 1:56.61 to score 317 points. The next fastest was the 1:57.31 put up by Japan’s Ito Yuki, with the third best swimming performance going to the Frenchman Gabriel Cianelli (1:58.56). The home crowd was strongly behind their Hungarian compatriot Norbert Horvath, who finished sixth in the(1:59.54).
On the fencing piste Horváth was even better. The Hungarian won 19 per 27 fencing bouts to win not only the fencing competition, but he also became the overall leader. The next best performer was Jonas Von Allmen, who finished with 18 victories to 9 defeats.
Modern Pentathlon made its World University Championship debut in 2018
The biggest mover in the overall standings after fencing was made by Luka Svechota of the Czech Republic. By winning 18 fencing bouts, the standout athlete moved from 23rd position after swimming to the second before the defining Laser-Run. Before the final combined event, Loubet occupied the third position, while Elgendy, the winner of the swimming leg, dropped to fourth.
In the closing competition, it all came down to steely focus and endurance as the leading group’s position were capsized. The Hungarian Horváth looked like he might surge away with the World University Championship title also shooting clean through the first shooting stage, but then it began to unravel as he missed three times on the second time to the range, ten times on the third visit and once in the last round. The ten mistakes in a row of the third shooting stage doomed the then leader Horváth to drop out of the battle for the final victory and off the podium altogether to finish sixth after recording the 21st best Laser-Run time.
With Horváth out of contention, the world university championship was decided between the trio of Loubet, Elgendy and Svechota. Though the Egyptian made the most mistakes of the three, he finished 10 seconds before Svechota with a time of 11:09.64. But he couldn’t overtake the steadier shooting Loubet, who made only two errors in the range. In the end, it was enough to record the best time in the Laser-Run — and to win the whole event.
“It was special because at a normal day in the Modern (Pentathlon) we do five disciplines, but this time it was a kind of special to think about just four events” Loubet said. “But I felt myself doing well in the swimming pool at the morning. During fencing, I had both good and bad moments. In the combined (Laser-Run), I felt myself very well. I started with large handicap, 43 seconds to first. But before the combined in my mind I said, ’Everything is okay, I can do it’. And finally I could.”
The Men’s Tetrathlon podium at the FISU World University Modern Pentathlon Championship: Gold, Brice Loubet (FRA, centre); Silver, Ahmed Elgendy (EGY, left); Lukas Svechota (CZE, right)
In the final standing, world champion Loubet scored 1163 points overall, Ahmed with 1159 and Svechota with 1152. Just off the podium were the Polish athletes Lukas Gutkowski (1140) and Daniel Lawrynowicz (1134).
On Thursday, the FISU World University Modern Pentathlon Championship continues with the women’s final.
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