It was the Ahmed Elgendy show as he dominated the laser run in the men’s pentathlon to win gold and set a world record of 1555 points. With the win, he became the first athlete from Africa to win the Olympic modern pentathlon. Japan’s Sato Taishu finished 13.38 seconds behind him for silver and Italy’s Giorgio Milan came from behind to win bronze.
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Entering the laser race, Elgendy’s effort over the last three days of competition had paid off. He had a 17 second head start on the 17 other competitors in the race. He didn’t have the best start to the race when at the first stop of the shooting range he needed 15 seconds to clear his five targets, but that’s as dicey as it got as he improved his shooting each round and crossed the finish line 13 seconds ahead of Japan’s Soto with a time of 10:02.47.
Elgendy’s gold is Egypt’s first gold medal of the Games and third overall medal. While Elgendy has been a favorite in the event and won the silver medal in Tokyo, it wasn’t a guarantee he’d even compete in Paris. He dislocated his shoulder at the 2024 World Championship in June.
Six athletes completed the show jumping portion with perfect scores including Elgendy, Sato and Malan. Defending Olympic champion Joe Choong continued to climb back from his bad fencing round on Day 1, with only one penalty in the event.
Mexico’s Emiliano Hernandez dominated the bonus fencing round with six wins to earn 12 points. Choong again performed well picking up four points while South Korea’s Jun Woong-Tae earned six points in the round to move into second overall and four points back of Elgendy.
Choong won the swim event with the fastest time of the day, but the fencing round really put him too far behind and he was still 14th in the standings and would start 50 seconds behind Elgendy in the run.
For much of the laser run, it looked like Sato and Jun would be battling it out for silver and bronze, with the advantage to Sato. However, on the last run circuit, Malan powered past Jun for the bronze. The Italian clocked in at 9:51.70 for the laser run, nearly 23 seconds faster than Jun.
In an event steeped in tradition, having been a part of the Olympics since 1912, it was the last edition with equestrian as a discipline. In 2028, an obstacle course will replace the show jumping event. It was a fitting sendoff the Palace of Versailles, a venue with deep equestrian history.
RIDING RESULTS l BONUS FENCING RESULTS l SWIMMING RESULTS l LASER RUN RESULTS
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