Cairo, Egypt

April 16, 2009 to April 19, 2009

UIPM PRESS RELEASE - QUALIFICATION ROUNDS

 

                                                                             PRESS RELEASE

 


MODERN PENTATHLON

Cairo World Cup #2:

Qualification Rounds

 

 

Cairo, 17 April 2009 - Two days of exciting competition have just finished to determine the top 36 athletes through to the finals commencing tomorrow. The women are first on Saturday morning beginning at the fencing hall at 08:00. The men follow on Sunday with the same schedule. 

 

WOMEN

Anastasia Samusevich of Belarus is the highest ranked women heading to the finals tomorrow with 4304 points. As part of Group 1 she leads a strong contingent from this qualification round with the top 9 in Group 1 all achieving more then 4188 which was the highest qualification score achieved in Group 2 by Leila Gyenesei of Hungary. Spectators were treated to another spectacular performance by Aya Medany, this time on home soil. The winner of the recent World Cup in Mexico displayed excellent technique in the combined event, with fast reloads and successful shots. Medany also showed her strength in the fencing winning the event in her qualification group (19V/4D). Her strongest competitior in the field, double World Champion (2007/2008), Amelie Cazé (FRA) was the best in her qualification group for 18V/6D. The fastest swim of the top 36 was Gyenesei in a time of 2:13.43 to head into the pool as a favourite for this discipline tomorrow. In the combined event, young Egyptian pentathlete Yasmine Khaled had the fastest time, completed the challenging event in a quick 12:12.00.

Olympic Champion Lena Schöneborn made the top 36 finishing 11 in Group 2. She is joined by Olympic Silver medallist Heather Fell who was 16th in the same Group. For both this is their first international competition of the 2009 season inclusive of the new combined event.

Host country, Egypt will be represented by 3 women in the finals - Aya Medany, Jihan El Midany and Yasmine Khaled. The other strong nation to be represented is Great Britain with all four women attending through to the finals - Heather Fell, Charlotte Granfield, Lydia Rosling and Louise Helyer.

The Top 36 finalists and full results can be obtained on www.pentathlon.org

MEN

Representing 22 countries, 71 men started today for the tough competition to narrow the field to 36. Star performer was Sung hyun Lee of Korea who took the lead in Group 1 following a strong swim and doubled this up with an excellent performance in the combined event showing he is definitely a contender for the final qualifying with 4792 points. The fastest competitor in the combined was Nicola Benedetti in a quick 10:58 and earning himself a spot in the top 36 having finished in 11th from a starting position of 21st. Samuel Weale (GBR) finished in fifth position to be Great Britain's only representative through to the final from the four strong team competing. 2008 World Champion Ilia Frolov (RUS) also had a good start to the competition qualifying equal second in Group 1

 

The strongest fencer in the top 36 was Omar El Geziry obtaining 1024 points from 26V/9D. Meanwhile, his brother Amro El Geziry again showed his class in the pool with the fastest time of 1:58.05. In Group 2 the El Geziry brothers went into the combined event ranked first and second respectively. After the first round (shoot/run) they looked good, but both experiencing difficulties in the second and third rounds of the shooting saw them drop back to finish third (Omar) and 16th (Amro). It was Hungarian Peter Tibolya who had the strongest display in the combined, moving from a starting position of 11th to take the lead after the second round of shots. He was closely followed by Edvinas Krungolcas (LTU) the 2008 Olympic Silver medallist but never lost his lead.

Of the 12 strong Egyptian contingent entered in the qualifications, 2 made the top 18 in Group 1, while a further 2 made the top 18 in Group 2 - Mustafa Nofal, Yasser Hefny, Omar El Geziry and Amro El Geziry,

The Top 36 finalists and full results can be obtained on www.pentathlon.org

 

GENERAL INFORMATION

The 2009 World Cup Series of Modern Pentathlon now includes the new combined event format, adopted by the UIPM Congress in November 2008. The combined event is the continuous combination of the shoot and run disciplines, where athletes commence with 5 shots (in time limit of 70 seconds) followed by 1km run. This is repeated two further times for a total of 15 shots and 3km run. For more information on the combined event see www.pentathlon.org

 

So that fans around the world can watch these great athletes, and share in the excitement of the combined event, the UIPM will be broadcasting the finals live via internet TV on 28 and 29 March.  The broadcast will include highlights of the fence and swim events as well as live coverage of the riding and combined events.

 

The Cairo World Cup is the second in a series of 5 events in the following two months which will culminate in the World Cup final to be held in Rio de Janeiro 12-13 September. The first competition was held in Mexico 26-29 March.

 

Competition Schedule*

 

Women's semi final - 16 April from 08:30

Men's semi final - 17 April from 08:30

Women's final - 18 April from 08:00

Men's final - 19 April from 08:00

 

*(all times are local)

 

 

 

-END-

 

UNION INTERNATIONALE DE PENTATHLON MODERNE (UIPM)

Tel. +377 9777 8555 Fax.+377 9777 8550

E-mail: uipm@pentathlon.org

Website: http://www.pentathlon.org