MODERN PENTATHLON: Old friends reunite for men’s Relay World title

The UIPM World Championships are being held in a unique, all-in-one, “pentathon stadium” in which all of the events – fencing, swimming, riding and the Laser Run – can be competed in and an event concluded in about five hours.

It’s a new concept that the UIPM will help preserve and grow the sport, which is quadrennially on the cutting edge of being eliminated from the Olympic Games. But this new facility, in Mexico City (MEX), is being used for the 2018 Worlds … and is so far a success.

The first events were the men’s and women’s team relays. The men’s duo of Alexandre Henrard and Valentin Belaud are hardly strangers: they won the World Junior Championships in this event in 2013. Trailing Jan Kuf and Martin Vlach (CZE) going into the Laser Run, but Belaud took the lead on the final lap to win the race and the title, adding to his individual World Championship from 2016.

The women’s relay also saw a come-from-behind finish as Anastasiya Prokopenko and Iryna Prasiantsova (BLR) started eight seconds back of Korea’s Soo Jin Yang and Juhye Choi, but ended up winning the event in 12:01.94 and taking the gold medal.

The Worlds continue with the individual event finals on the 12th and 13th; summaries so far:

UIPM World Championships
Mexico City (MEX) ~ 6-13 September 2018
(Full results here)

Men/Team Relay: 1. Alexandre Henrard/Valentin Belaud (FRA), 1,518; 2. Jan Kuf/Martin Vlach (CZE), 1,513; 3. Todor Mihalev/Yavor Peshleevski (BUL), 1,482; 4. Yaraslau Radziuk/Ilya Palazkov (BLR), 1,475; 5. Yu Zhang/Shuai Luo (CHN), 1,470; 6. Oleg Naumov/Egor Puchkarevskiy (RUS), 1,462; 7. Dmytro Baliuk/Dmytro Kirpulyanskyy (UKR), 1,459; 8. Pavel Ilyashenko/Vladislav Michshenko (KAZ), 1,452.

Women/Team Relay: 1. Anastasiya Prokopenko/Iryna Prasiantsova (BLR), 1,381; 2. Ronja Steinborn/Annika Schleu (GER), 1,364; 3. Sofia Cabrera/Sophia Hernandez (GUA), 1,353; 4. Yufei Bian/Xiaonan Zhang (CHN), 1,338; 5. Blanka Guzi/Michelle Gulyas (HUN), 1,322; 6. Soo Jin Yang/Juhye Choi (KOR), 1,317; 7. Pamela Zapata/Ayelen Zapata (ARG), 1,288; 8. Karol Gonzalez/ Catherine Mayran Oliver (MEX), 1,276. Also: 10. Naomi Ross/Sam Achtenberg (USA), 1,212.

Mixed/Team Relay: 1. Rebecca Langrehr/Fabrian Liebig (GER), 1,452; 2. Michelle Gulyas/Gergo Bruckmann (HUN), 1,427; 3. Emma Riff/Alexandre Henrard (FRA), 1.416; 4. Elena Potapenko/Pavel Ilyashenko (KAZ), 1,411; 5. Elishka Pribylova/Ondrej Polivka (CZE), 1.402; 6. Mingyu Zhang/Shuhuan Li (CHN), 1,399; 7. Anna Buriak/Oleg Naumov (RUS), 1,387; 8. Sergio Flores, Melissa Mireles (MEX), 1,380. Also: 13. Naomi Ross/Seamus Millett (USA), 1,311.