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Egypt’s Ahmed Elgendy has won the men’s modern pentathlon at the 2024 Olympic Games, becoming only the second non-European and the first African to win the traditional multi-event discipline.
In the final at Versailles, he started with a clear round in the equestrian event and, although he picked up no points in the bonus round of fencing, his work had already been done yesterday by accruing 245 points in yesterday’s ranking round which he brought forward to give him a comfortable lead.
The defending champion, Britain’s Joe Choong whose performance in the fencing on Friday essentially made it impossible to win a medal, was the fastest in the swimming but Elgendy was only two second sbehind and he started the final event, the laser-run, with a 17-second head start and he romped to victory.
Japan’s Taishu Sato moved up from fourth to take silver with a fine laser-run and Italy’s Giorgio Malan stormed past South Korea’s Jun Woong-tae on the final lap. Choong’s performance on Saturday was good enough to take him from 17th to ninth but he had simply left himself too much to do.
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Modern pentathlon: as it happened
06:26 PM BST
Ahmed Elgendy wins gold for Egypt
It’s a first gold for Africa in the modern pentathlon.
It’s silver for Sato and Japan and bronze for Italy’s Malan.
Choong made up five places to finish ninth but his goose was cooked in the fencing ranking round yesterday.
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Elgendy 1555 points
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Sato 1542 points
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Malan 1536 points
06:22 PM BST
Elegendy finishes shooting
The Egyptian is cruising to victory. Sato is clear in second but there’s a fight for bronze. Malan has kicked past Jun.
06:20 PM BST
After the third visit to shooting range
Elgendy rattles through the five hits and Sato is clear in second for now.
06:18 PM BST
Elgendy extends lead to more than 20 seconds
Sato in second and Jun in third. Malan and Cicinelli are poised in fourth and fifth after the second trip to the range.
06:16 PM BST
A few misses from Elgendy in first shoot
But he still has a lead of more than 15 seconds as Jun also has problems at the shoot. Sato gets ahead of him to move into second.
06:14 PM BST
Elgendy sets off
It’s five lots of 600m interspersed with four stops at the shooting range.
06:12 PM BST
It’s all down to the laser-run
Elegendy is a crack shot so barring an uncharacteristic attack of the jitters, his 17 second head start should be enough. Egypt’s previous gold medals have all come in weightlifting, wrestling and karate.
06:00 PM BST
Top five going into the laser run
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Elgendy 857 points
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Dallenbach 840
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Jun 840
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Sato 834
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Malan 827
* 14th Choong 807 points.
That means Joe Choong, who had the fastest time in the swimming, starts 50 seconds behind Elgendy who also has a 17 second head start over Dallenbach.
05:58 PM BST
Dallenbach wins third heat
In 1.57.64, giving him 315 points, the same as Choong, but Elgendy was only two seconds behind. So he will start with a healthy cushion in the laser-run.
05:51 PM BST
The second swimming heat
Is won by Italy’s Cicinelli in 1.59, giving him 312 points.
The top six go next.
05:45 PM BST
Terrific swim by Joe Choong
The defending champions wins the first heat in 1.57.52, giving him 315 points to take forward. The slowest was Jean-Baptiste Mourcia in 2.10.05 (290 points)
05:41 PM BST
On to the swimming
It’s a short course event, eight lengths of a 25m pool, a time trial effectively: a time of 2min 30sec earns 250 points and and extra two for each second better than the benchmark, each second slower deducts two points.
There are three heats of six and Joe Choong goes in the first s he’s among the bottom six à ce moment.
05:34 PM BST
Jun wins the final duel
And that means he will take six bonus points into the swimming.
That leaves the leader board looking like this:
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Ahmed Elgendy (Egypt) 545
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Taishu Sato (Japan) 532
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Jun Woong-tae (South Korea) 528
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Alexandre Dallenbach (Switzerland) 525
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Pavels Svecovs (Latvia) 519
* 16th Joe Choong (GB) 492
05:30 PM BST
Jun takes the points against Dellenbach
And he will take on Svecovs, beating him in 20 seconds. One last round for him, then, against the leader Ahmed Elgendy.
05:28 PM BST
Seo beats Gutkowski
But stays on four points after being beaten by Sato of Japan. Sato is 15 points behind Elgendy at the top so another victory would help close the gap.
Dallenbach of Switzerland wins their duel, however.
05:24 PM BST
A home victory for Prades
He knocks out Shaban perfunctorily and is serenaded with Allez les Bleus before he takes on Korea’s Seo, who beats him with a parry and then pins him.
05:23 PM BST
Emiliano Hernadez ploughs through the field
With his fifth and sixth victories over Cicinelli and Dogue but he looks tired now and is picked off by Shaban who scored zero points in the equestrian part after his horse unseated him.
05:19 PM BST
Hernandez knocks off his next three opponents
Registering fleches to eliminate Germany’s Liebig and the Italian Malan. And he continues on a roll to beat Balazs Szep.
05:15 PM BST
Choong v Hernandez
Hernandez wins with a fleche attack after Choong opens himself up so the Tokyo champion departs with two victories.
05:13 PM BST
Choong vs Mourcia
Choong wins in the final second with a fleche. That’s four points for Choong, Next up for him is Hernandez of Mexico.
05:11 PM BST
Choong gets the victory
In rapidfire time with his attack, the southpaw making the hit within 10 seconds. That’s two bonus points for him. And so he stays on.
05:10 PM BST
Joe Choong goes first in fencing’s bonus round
And it’s against the world champion Csaba Bohm.
05:09 PM BST
Current top five
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Elgendy (Egypt) 545
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Sato (Japan) 530
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Dallenbach (Switzerland) 523
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Jun (South Korea) 522
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Svecovs (Latvia) 519
* Choong (16th) 488.
05:06 PM BST
Up next is the fencing
And the scores from the fencing ranking round are added to the scores from the jumping.
That leaves Joe Choong in 16th place on 488.
Joe Choong, Team GB’s reigning Olympic champion, has it all to do after a poor performance in the fencing ranking round on Thursday, that counts towards the final here in the wonderful surroundings at the Chateau de Versailles. Choong was devastated about that display, and performed commendably in the showjumping by coming seventh out of the 18 finalists. If a second gold now looks highly unlikely, a place on the podium is just about still possible.
05:05 PM BST
Elgendy goes clear
Latvia’s Pavels Svecovs has a bit of a nightmare and knocks down three fences, scoring 279 but the favourite and OR holder, Egypt’s Ahmed Elgendy goes clear.
That’s the first of the five disciplines done.
05:02 PM BST
Here’s Mohanad Shaban’s dismounting
05:00 PM BST
First clear run for a while
Japan’s Taishu Soto gets round without fault and pumps his fist in celebration. The Swiss rider who follows him, Alwxandre Dallenbach, talks to his horse the whole way round and nurses him over nine of the 10 fences. He carries 293 points from this forward.
One of the favourites, South Korea’s Jun, recovers from a refusal and comes round again but loses 10 points for the refusal and three for a time violation. He goes forward with 287.
04:55 PM BST
Timber!
Seo Chang-wan of South Korea almost loses his stirrup and clips a couple of obstacles to score 286. Lukasz Gutkowski is next up and the Polish sharp-shooter knocks down fence six and completely demolishes fence 10 also to score 286. The last fault wasn’t the horses fault, the rider kicked the vertical support over as the horse cleared the top bar. He was too close to the right.
04:51 PM BST
Mohanad Shaban is out
The second Egyptian in the final is dismounted after a refusal at fence 9 and he falls off, landing on top of the pole, reins in hand. That’s his competition done.
The second Frenchman, Valentin Prades had a horrible start with three fences hit in the opening five and the last obstacle too, costing him 24 points.
04:46 PM BST
Szep’s perfect round
Balazs Szep of Hungary registers a perfect 300 and Italy’s Mateo Cicinelli is docked seven points for one pole down. Here comes Marvin Dogue, in a bit of a battle with the horse but gets away with two overly long strides, knocking down only one pole for 293.
04:41 PM BST
Two more clear rounds
Fabian Liebig goes clear for Germany followed by Italy’s Giorgio Malan who follows suit, getting home clear and just inside the 63 second cut off.
04:37 PM BST
Crowd erupts for French clear round
Jean-Baptiste Mourcia jumps clear and is followed by Mexico’s Emiliano Hernandez who clips two fences and is docked 14 points.
04:34 PM BST
Joe Choong knocks down one pole
And salutes the large British contingent in the crowd by scoring 293.
04:32 PM BST
Each fence knocked down costs seven points
Everyone starts with 300 points and you lose seven for each fault, including for not finishing within the minute. World champion Csaba Bohm went first and knocks down two poles.
04:30 PM BST
The stands are packed at Versailles
A lot of fanning going on among the punters on a gorgeous day in Paris. Joe Choong goes second in the riding based on his qualifying position in fencing, Ahmed Elgandy, who set a new Olympic record in the semi-final, goes last.
04:22 PM BST
The schedule
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Show jumping 4.30pm
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Fencing 5.10pm
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Swimming 5.40pm
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Laser run 6.10pm
04:15 PM BST
Another stunning location
The choice of venues for these Games has been picture perfect. And none more so than Versailles for the pentathlon.
04:04 PM BST
Joe Choong’s thoughts on his qualification troubles
Joe Choong has not given up hope of another Olympic medal after scraping into the modern pentathlon final.
The 29-year-old is the defending champion but a disastrous fencing ranking round on Thursday all but ended his chances of a repeat.
He went into Friday’s semi-finals at Versailles with a lot of work to do just to make the 18-man line-up but at least cleared that hurdle, securing the top-nine spot he needed with eighth in the second semi-final.
Choong has been a fierce critic of the decision to drop showjumping as one of the five disciplines after Paris in favour of obstacle racing, which followed a high-profile controversy in Tokyo where a German coach hit an uncooperative horse.
There were no such dramas here, although Choong knocked down two fences, but he clawed his way back with four wins in the fencing bonus round and the fastest 200 metres swim, leaving himself just outside the top nine going into the final biathlon-style laser run.
A solid running and shooting display saw him comfortably achieve the position he needed, but he admitted he is now relying on others slipping up.
“I knew I needed almost the perfect day,” he said. “I made a mistake on the horse, which meant I didn’t gain any ground, and then I thought that was probably it.
“It’s been a real battle, I had to collect myself between every event, especially after last night. I’m just glad my Olympics isn’t over yet.
“Unfortunately, the medal results are out of my hands. I’m relying on some mistakes at the top if I want to get close. But it’s positive. It is the Olympics and there’s a lot of pressure on those other guys so you never know.”
03:17 PM BST
Preview: Take five
Good afternoon and welcome to live coverage of the men’s modern pentathlon final from the 2024 Paris Olympics which starts at 4.30pm UK time. The competition starts for the 18 qualifiers with the riding, a 12-fence showjumping course undertaken on a horse chosen at random from the pool. Each rider is given a maximum of 20 minutes to bond and practise with the horse before entering the ring and the chance to earn 300 points for a clear round. Every infringement, including going beyond the allotted time, leads to a deduction.
After completing the first of the five cadet-institute disciplines, the competitors move on to the fencing bonus round in which the athletes are matched according to their results in qualification. The competitor in last place takes on the one in second-last place etc, winners stays on and the winner earns two points and then moves on to fight the next best-ranked and so on until only one remains. From then on it becomes rather more straightforward mercifully to swimming. It’s a time trial effectively: a time of 2min 30sec earns 250 points and and extra two for each second better than the benchmark, each second slower deducts two points.
Finally they move on to the old combined shooting and running event, now the laser-run. The leader in points goes first with the next runner starting by the number of points he trails by converted into seconds and so on. They run for 3000m, stopping four times to register five shots with a laser pistol on target, only moving on once they have hit it five times. The winner of the whole event is the first athlete across the finishing line.
The first British man to win individual modern pentathlon gold, Joe Choong, the 29-year-old Old Whitgiftian, defends the title he won in Tokyo today but had some troubles in fencing and riding in qualifying with 1497 points, joint 17th place among the 18 qualifiers. In Tokyo, his fencing propelled him to the title so hopefully it was just a blip but given he qualified in 17th place with the epee he has a lot of bouts to win. And he faces formidable competition from Egypt’s Ahmed Elgendy, the silver-medallist in Japan and 2023 team world champion and South Korea’s Jun Wong-Tae, bronze in Tokyo and a multiple team and relay world champion, who qualified with 1516 and 1515 points respectively. Look out too for the world champion Csaba Bohm and his strong Hungary team-mate Balazs Szep.
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