Mouth-watering World Cup #3 begins in Chengdu
The world class facilities of the Pierre de Coubertin Modern Pentathlon Stadium in Chengdu, China, welcome some of the best pentathletes from around the globe this week for what promises to be 5 days of scintillating competition as the race for qualification to this season’s World Cup Final hots up.
The press conference and technical meeting at the event headquarters have been held and the line-ups for the women’s qualification phases have been announced. 2 groups, plenty of quality and 36 places for Friday’s Final up for grabs.
It will be tantalising throughout the competition with proceedings getting underway with the fence in Group A. The Chinese will look to dominate as Qian Cheng, Wei Wang, fencing world record holder Xioanan Zhang seek to make the most of home advantage.
That group will see British duo Kate French and Freyja Prentice take to the pistes and lead the charges to counter the threat of the Chinese contingent. Russia’s Ekaterina Khuraskina will be one to watch out for with the 24-year-old having looked solid throughout World Cup #2 in Cairo as she finished an impressive sixth overall and claimed 44 world ranking points. She is joined by compatriot Alise Fakhrutdinova.
It will be interesting to see how Belarus’ Tatsiana Yelizarova fares and if Adele Stern of France can make an impact amongst the Seniors in that group.
In the other table, a mouth-watering line-up will be battling it out, with headlines acts Yane Marques of Brazil, Donata Rimsaite of Russia and Great Britain London 2012 silver medallist Samantha Murray making it an incredibly tough group to emerge from.
Hungarian duo Zsofia Foldhazi and Sarolta Kovacs will be eager to hit the ground running, just as Poland’s in-form Oktawia Nowacka, as the quality names just keep on coming.
Amongst this star-studded line-up, China’s rising star Danni Wei and Belarus’ Katsiaryna Arol have the skills and temperament to make the transition from the junior to the senior ranks with ease, however it will be anything but easy when the pressure is cranked up.
Tamara Vega of Mexico looked in good shape in Cairo and Italy’s Francesco Gandolfo, fresh from her triumph at the nationals, will also be gunning for qualification to the Finals. All competitors will have to be at the sharpest if they hope to make the cut.
Women’s Qualification Groups Schedule: (time CST)
Group A
- 10:00 – 12:00 Fencing
- 13:00 – 13:30 Swimming
- 14:30 – 14:50 Combined
Group B
- 11:30 – 12:00 Swimming
- 13:00 – 15:00 Fencing
- 16:00 – 16:20 Combined
Competition schedule:
- Wednesday 16 April – Women’s Qualification
- Thursday 17 April – Men’s Qualification
- Friday 18 April – Women’s Final
- Saturday 19 April – Men’s Final
- Sunday 20 April – Mixed Relay
Keep up to date with all the scores as they unfold on the www.pentathlon.org homepage
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