UIPM 2024 Pentathlon World Cup Budapest: Jun (KOR) chases another title in Men’s Final

• Olympic medallist on course for eighth Pentathlon World Cup gold
• Svecovs (LAT), Seo (KOR), Prades (FRA) and Demeter (HUN) in close pursuit
• Luo (CHN) wins second Semi-final as Olympic qualification race continues

Tokyo 2020 Olympic bronze medallist Woongtae Jun of Korea will be the one to catch in the Men’s Final at UIPM 2024 Pentathlon World Cup Budapest.

Jun (KOR) returned to form with a top score of 25 victories and 10 defeats in the Fencing Ranking Round, before safely qualifying from Semi-final B.

The seven-time Pentathlon World Cup winner will hold a five-point advantage over Pavels Svecovs of Latvia when the action resumes on Super Saturday, with team-mate Changwan Seo (KOR) joining Valentin Prades of France and local favourite Bence Demeter of Hungary on a 10-point deficit.

The in-form Seo (KOR) won Semi-final A by a 2sec margin with a total of 1,186 points, followed across the line by Yuriy Kovalchuk of Ukraine, Mohamed Elgendy (EGY) and Csaba Bohm (HUN). Sebastian Stasiak of Poland held his nerve to secure the ninth and last Final berth.

Semi-final B was won by Shuai Luo of China with the day’s top score of 1,208 points, finishing 2sec ahead of team-mates Mihaly Koleszar (HUN) and Balazs Szep (HUN). European champion Giorgio Malan of Italy just managed to escape the cut in 9th place.

Pentathlon World Cup Budapest reaches a climax tomorrow (April 27) with the Women’s and Men's Finals, concluding with the Mixed Relay on April 28.

Live stream of the Semi-finals and Finals is available on UIPM TV and all competition results are available at the UIPM website.

The 18 athletes who qualified for the Men's Final are: