Korea takes two relay medals at Pentathlon World Championships

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Published: 26 Jul. 2022, 16:20 Updated: 31 Jul. 2022, 16:46

Korea takes two relay medals at Pentathlon World Championships

Kim Sun-woo, left and Kim Se-hee celebrate winning the women's relay bronze medal at the Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne (UIPM) 2022 Pentathlon World Championships in Alexandria, Egypt on Tuesday. [KMPF]

Jun Woong-tae, left and Jung Jin-hwa celebrate after crossing the finish line first on Sunday at the men's relay race of the Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne (UIPM) 2022 Pentathlon World Championships. [KMPF]

Kim Se-hee and Kim Sun-woo won Korea's first-ever women's team relay medal on Monday, finishing third at the Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne (UIPM) 2022 Pentathlon World Championships.

The third-place finish marks Korea’s second medal in Alexandra, Egypt, after Jun Woong-tae and Jung Jin-hwa combined to win men’s team relay gold on Sunday.

Modern pentathlon is based on the five skills that were considered the core skills a cavalry officer needed: Fencing, swimming, horseback riding, pistol shooting and cross-country running, the last two of which are combined into one final round, the laser-run. The first three sports determine the order in which the athletes start the laser-run.

Last November, the UIPM announced that the 2024 Paris Olympics will be the last to feature horses in the modern pentathlon because the riding section will be replaced with a new fifth sport. The World Championships keeps horseback riding for now.

Kim Sun-woo, left and Kim Se-hee celebrate after crossing the finish line third on Monday at the women's relay race of the Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne (UIPM) 2022 Pentathlon World Championships. [KMPF]

Kim Se-hee and Kim Sun-woo won the bronze medal on Monday with 1,260 points, behind Morsy Haydy and Kandil Amira of Egypt, with 1,298 points and Arceo Mariana and Oliver Mayan of Mexico, with 1,291 points. Korea had topped the standings for swimming, finished third for riding, fourth for laser run and fifth for fencing, crossing the finish line third.

Kim Se-hee and Kim Sun-woo represented Korea at the 2020 Tokyo Summer Games, where Kim Se-hee finished 11th to tie for the highest-ever finish by a Korean in the women’s modern pentathlon and Kim Sun-woo finished 17th.

On Sunday, Jun and Jung won the men’s relay gold medal with a total of 1,427 points, comfortably beating silver medalists Hamad Eslam and Hamed Ahmed of Egypt, who had 1,419 points, and bronze medalists Tuman Matous and Houska Filip of the Czech Republic, who had 1,408 points.

Fencing was what gave Jun and Jung the upper hand, with the Korean duo topping the fencing points with 259 points after 37 victories and 11 defeats. Then they extended their lead in swimming, with the fastest time of one minute and 51.37 seconds.

Jun and Jung are both Olympians, having finished third and fourth respectively in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

This is Jung’s sixth World Championship gold medal after winning in 2012, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2019. Except the 2012 gold medal won alongside Hong Jin-woo and Hwang Woo-jin and the individual gold medal won in 2017 at Cairo, all other four gold medals were won with Jun.

“Egypt is a special country for me after I was individual world champion in 2017,” said Jung on Sunday after winning the gold medal. “And I was very happy to have another nice victory with my teammate Jun today.”

Tokyo bronze medalist Jun has now collected five World Championship medals, and also has an Asiad gold from the 2018 Jakarta Games.

“This year the 2022 season is going very well for the Korea team,” said Jun on Sunday. “It’s very important that we work as a team.”

Team Korea will be looking for more medals in the women’s and men’s individual events and mixed relay events. The World Championships will run through July 31.

BY YUN SO-HYANG [yun.sohyang@joongang.co.kr]