MODERN PENTATHLON July-September 2014 Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne Newsletter SUMMER EDITION HIGHLIGHTS • Senior World Championships 2014 - p.2 • Youth Olympic Games Nanjing 2014 - p.5 • Masters World Championships 2014 - p.8 • Pan American Championships - p.9 • News from around the Modern Pentathlon World - p.10 • Medical & Anti-Doping corner - p.13 • Inside UIPM: Monthly activities of President Dr Schormann - p.14 • New Balance World Rankings - p.19 • Calendar - p.20 IOC President attends the Girls’ Individual Final at Nanjing 2014 and meets our Youth Olympians UIPM NEWSLETTER 2 JULY-SEPTEMBER 2014 Prades & Valentin Belaud triumphed Senior World Championships after a day where they experienced mixed fortunes. Warsaw, 2014 After an intensely competitive Fenc- ing event they were involved in a three way tie at the top of the leaderboard – Women’s Relay them a 10-second lead for the Com- with Belarus and the Czech Republic. bined Event, which they controlled They then fell away in the Swimming The 2014 Modern Pentathlon World from start to finish. and Riding, but finished strongly in Championships in Warsaw burst into The silver medal was decided when the Combined Event with a strong life on the opening day with China Arol (BLR) ran away from Lontano comeback from fifth place. Their re- taking gold in the Women’s Relay. (ITA) in the shooting and after the vival denied gold to Raman Pinchuk Qian Chen and Wanxia Liang topped changeover Bonessio (ITA) couldn’t & Stanislau Zhurauliou (Belarus), who the podium after a dominant display catch Prokopenko (BLR). had led the way after the Swimming. in the Combined Event in front of an Indeed, the Italian had to dig deep Prades & Belaud (FRA) performed well in a close Fencing competition which saw them, along with Raman Pinchuk & Stanislau Zhurauliou (BELARUS) and Jan Kuf & David Svoboda (Czech Republic) sharing the overall lead. Things quickly changed in the pool though where Pinchuk & Zhurauliou (BLR) recorded a time of 1:48.95 to place seventh in Swimming, but in first place overall. Maksim Kustov and Egor Puchkarevskiy (RUSSIA) put in the fastest time of 1:44.61. The leaderboard was now beginning PODIUM OF THE WOMEN’S RELAY COMPETITION to take shape as Pinchuk & Zhurau- liou (BLR) maintained their lead in the Riding with a fourth-place finish, enthralled crowd at the Józef Piłsud- with a sprint finish to avoid being a placing they shared with Prades & ski University of Physical Education. overtaken by Beijing 2008 Olympic Belaud (FRA). Chen and Liang had faced fierce champion Lena Schoneborn (Germa- They were being pushed all the way, competition across the first three ny), who finished fourth overall with however, by Svoboda & Kuf (CZE) disciplines. Silver medallists Kat- her teammate Annika Schleu (GER) and brothers Amro & Omar El Geziry siaryna Arol & Anastasiya Prokopen- recording the fastest time for the (EGYPT) who after the Riding sat joint ko (Belarus) were the early leaders in Combined Event. second overall. first place after a very close fencing Thomas Toolis and James Cooke competition which saw Chen and Men’s Relay (Great Britain) took first place in the Liang (China) finish in joint second Riding Event. with eventual bronze medallists Lav- Another thrilling day of top-class With a slim two-second advantage at inia Bonessio and Camilla Lontano competition saw France top the po- the start of the Combined Event, Pin- (Italy). dium in the Men’s Relay in Warsaw. chuk & Zhurauliou (BLR) set off with The atmosphere inside the swimming The Gold Medal pairing of Valentin gold in their sights. venue was electric with Samantha Murray and Alice Fitton (Great Britain) recording the fastest times. As the fourth-fastest swimmers, Chen and Liang (CHN) moved into the overall lead after the swimming event with previous leaders Arol and Proko- penko (BLR) only managing to finish in 10th. Once they had the lead, the Chinese duo never relinquished it, taking first spot in the Riding event which gave PRESIDENT SCHORMANN WITH THE MEDALISTS OF THE MEN’S RELAY COMPETITION UIPM NEWSLETTER 3 JULY-SEPTEMBER 2014 They were followed closely by the Prokopenko), narrowly ahead of Italy. ming, allowing her to stay in conten- Czechs and Belarusians, but it was a Murray (GBR) said afterwards: “I would tion, but Kovacs (HUN) remained in superb run from Belaud (FRA) – who like to thank UIPM and the organis- gold-medal position after recording had started seven seconds behind ers of the competition here in Poland, the maximum Riding score of 300. Zhurauliou (BLR) – that saw him take where the facilities were really good. Kovacs (HUN) started the Run/Shoot a lead which Prades (FRA) maintained Obviously I liked the swimming pool! with an advantage of 11 seconds after the changeover to cross the line “It has been a real pleasure to com- over Rimsaite (RUS) and 16 on Murray first. pete here. I’m always happy to com- (GBR), but the Olympic silver-medal- UIPM President Dr h.c. Klaus Schor- pete in Europe because it’s close to list quickly overcame her handicap, mann said: “All the athletes today can home, same time zone, and I would and on the second lap she overtook be proud of themselves as can their like to say thank you for everyone who Kovacs to claim an initiative that she federations. The fact that we changed has made this a special competition.” refused to relinquish. the relays to have two athletes per The highlight of the champion perfor- In the end, Chen (CHN) pushed her team increased the number of teams mance by Murray (GBR) was undoubt- close, and Liang (CHN) overtook Lena taking part and it is now a more fair edly her Swimming, where she set a Schoneborn (Germany) on the final and balanced competition.” new Modern Pentathlon world record Shooting range to claim a place on the podium. Special mention should also go to Laura Asadauskaite (Lithuania), the 2012 Olympic champion, who pro- duced a brilliant Combined Event to move all the way from 18th position overall to 5th. Men’s Individual Aleksander Lesun (Russia) confirmed his status as the world’s leading male SAMANTHA MURRAY AFTER WINNING THE WOMEN’S INDIVIDUAL COMPETITION pentathlete by winning gold in the Men’s Individual event at Warsaw Women’s Individual in the short-course (25m) pool. 2014. Murray swam 2min 03.84sec, a per- Already ranked No.1 in the New Bal- After winning bronze at the 2012 formance that allowed her to take the ance World Rankings, 26-year-old World Championships in Rome, then place of Sarolta Kovacs (Hungary) in Lesun extended his lead as he com- silver in the London Olympic Games the record books. However, Kovacs pleted a magical year in the perfect the same year, Samantha Murray was second-fastest in the pool and fashion. The Belarus-born Russian (Great Britain) continued her meteoric this performance gave her the overall had already won gold at the 2014 rise by becoming Women’s Individual lead, a position she would hold until World Cup Finals and 2014 European world champion at Warsaw 2014. the final event. Championships. Murray, 24, became the fourth Brit- Donata Rimsaite (Russia) was the last In fact, Lesun now has three World ish woman to have won the individual woman standing on the Fencing piste Championship titles to his name, hav- title, two years after Mhairi Spence’s after recording 25 wins. Chen (CHN) ing won the Men’s Individual event in success. was 4th in Fencing and 12th in Swim- Rome in 2012 and gold in the Team Britain boasts deep reserves of fe- male talent and so does China, which won gold in the Women’s Team event to complement the Individual medals won by Qian Chen (silver) and Liang Wanxia (bronze). Wang Wei was the third member of the champion team. Riding on the wave of Murray’s In- dividual Gold, Great Britain (Murray, Kate French, Freyja Prentice) also col- lected silver in the Team event, while bronze went to Belarus (Katsiaryna Arol, Tatsiana Yelizarova, Anastasiya MEN’S INDIVIDUAL COMPETITION PODIUM UIPM NEWSLETTER 4 JULY-SEPTEMBER 2014 event a year earlier, in Moscow. After Mixed-Relay Despite two knockdowns which saw the disappointment of the London them finish 10th in the Riding ele- 2012 Olympic Games, where he fin- A thrilling final day of action brought ment, Asadauskaite & Kinderis (LTU) ished fourth, he has responded like the curtain down on the Modern Pen- remained in second. a true champion this year to achieve tathlon World Championships and French & Evans (GBR) had an 18-sec- total domination. saw Lithuania crowned Mixed Relay ond head start in the Combined After receiving his Gold medal, Lesun gold medallists. Event, but they were under pressure (Rus) admitted that his next major Laura Asadauskaite & Justinas Kin- from the off. goal was to win the Olympic Modern deris (LTU) prevailed in one of the Asadauskaite (LTU) was breathing Pentathlon title, currently held by Da- closest fought events of the week. down French’s (GBR) neck for their en- vid Svoboda of Czech Republic, in Rio They were involved in a three-horse tire leg, but it wasn’t until the change- de Janeiro in 2016. race with Great Britain and Poland all over that the Lithuanians moved in He said: “I am knocking on the door day, leaving it until the closing mo- front with Kinderis (LTU) catching Ev- of David Svoboda. I’m looking at Rio ments of the Combined Event to se- ans (GBR) at the first Shooting station 2016. That’s my plan.” cure the title. and overtaking him.