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HomeSportOlympics-Modern Pentathlon-Champion Choong through to final, Elgendy eyes gold

Olympics-Modern Pentathlon-Champion Choong through to final, Elgendy eyes gold

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By Alan Baldwin
VERSAILLES, France (Reuters) -Egypt’s gold medal hope Ahmed Elgendy fought back from a show jumping nightmare to reach the men’s Modern Pentathlon final with an Olympic record score at the Paris Games on Friday as Britain’s reigning champion Joe Choong also qualified.

Elgendy won silver in Tokyo three years ago but the 24-year-old is chasing his country’s first gold of the 2024 Olympics against the stunning backdrop of the 17th century Palace of Versailles.

After leading Thursday’s fencing ranking round, the Egyptian suffered a scare when his randomly allocated horse, Talisman des Noues, refused a jump and almost threw him out of the saddle — which would have meant elimination.

“Luckily I didn’t fall down, so then I had to think very quickly…to push the horse very hard and just focus on what to do before every jump,” said Elgendy, who blamed himself for the refusal.

The Egyptian cleared at the second attempt but picked up penalties at two other fences and for excessive time. That left him 17th of 18 but he was up to seventh after the fencing bonus round and fifth after the 200 metres swim.

Elgendy took the lead in the final laser pistol shooting and run to the finish as thousands of spectators cheered in a stadium erected in the palace gardens.

His 1,516 points haul from semi-final A was an Olympic record, although that was expected in the new 90 minute format.

Japan’s Taishu Sato finished semi-final B with 1,515 points, the same as South Korea’s Jun Woong-tae.

A relieved Choong was eighth in the second semi-final, with Egypt’s Mohanad Shaban level on points to take the final qualifying slot ahead of Britain’s Charlie Brown.

“It’s been a real battle. I had to recollect myself between every event, especially after last night,” said Choong, who was distraught on Thursday after flopping in the fencing ranking round.

“I’m just pleased my Olympics isn’t over yet,” added the 29-year-old.

“Unfortunately the medal results are out of my hands. I think I’m relying on some mistakes at the top if I want to get close there.”

The finalists start with a clean slate on Sunday, except for the fencing ranking round scores which carry over to a bonus round.

Switzerland’s Alexandre Dallenbach, who had a clear round in the riding, was second in semi-final A and Mexico’s Emiliano Hernandez third with French hopefuls Jean-Baptiste Mourcia and Valentin Prades going through.

Saturday will be the men’s farewell to the horse-riding element as the sport switches to obstacle courses from the 2028 Games in Los Angeles.

The women have their semi-finals on Saturday.

(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Ed Osmond and Hugh Lawson)

Disclaimer: This report is auto generated from the Reuters news service. ThePrint holds no responsibilty for its content.

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