BUDAPEST — After the French triumph in the Men’s Final of the World University Modern Pentathlon Championship on Wednesday, it was the national anthem of Italy that competitors and the public heard at the end of the Women’s Final. Elena Micheli become world champion by leading at both the first event and the last as she won the swimming and the combined event, the latter with a score of 1049 points. The Italian finished ahead of Anna Maliszewska of Poland by 17 points. Rounding out the podium was Sondos Aboubakr of Egypt with 1027 points.
The one-day event began in the swimming pool for a 200 meter freestyle competition. In the pool, the overall individual champion Micheli clocked the fastest time of 2:09.27 to score 292 points. The next quickest was the 2:10.71 put up by Ksenila Fraltsova of Russia. The third best was Boros Alexandra who finished with a time of 2:12.70.
After the fencing, the whole leading group was rearranged, with Japan’s Saito Ayumu making the most outstanding performance in the discipline. By winning 18 per 23 fencing bouts, Ayumu moved up from 15th place to the 2nd in the overall.
Similar to Saito, the Egyptian Sondos Aboubakr also rose up the ranks during fencing. After the swimming, she was only the 16th but owing to her 17 victory: 6 defeat record, which was the second best in the fencing, she sat in third in the overall. The most consistent competitor during the first two events was Poland’s Marta Kobecka who finished fourth in the swimming and third in the fencing with 16 victories and 7 defeats.
Before the Laser-Run, only one point was the difference between the leader Kobecka and the runner-up Saito.
However, in the closing competiton the Polish athlete slowed down, finished only the 11th place, and she missed the podium by 6 points in the overall standing. The Japanese performed much worse: she made 24 mistakes in the shooting range and dropped down the rankings.
In the Laser-Run, the swimming discipline victor Micheli was unbeatable. She was perfect in three of the four shooting series and missed only three times on the second shooting round to the range and won the event with a time of 12:42.22 as the Italian confidently and comfortably won the women’s overall world university title with 1049 points.
“It was an amazing race,” Micheli said. “I had a very good Laser-Run, a not so good fencing, but in the end that wasn’t problem. In Modern Pentathlon we have to riding also. It was weird a little bit that there wasn’t riding today. But I liked it anyway. My running and my shooting was very good. I thought every time I should be serious and focused on what I should do.”
In the final standing the second was the Polish Anna Maliszewska who scored 1032 points. Maliszewska started the Laser-Run from the fifth place. During the combined event she made nine mistakes in the first two shooting round but in the following two she was perfect. The third was Sondos Aboubakr who collected 1027 points.
On Friday there is a pause in the World University Modern Pentathlon Championship schedule. The program continues on Saturday with the Mixed Relay.
The Women’s Final podium was comprised of: Italy’s Elena Micheli (centre) in first; Poland’s Anna Maliszewska (left) in second; and Egypt’s Sondos Aboubakr (right) in third
