2022 Asian Modern Pentathlon Championships: Golden glory for Kim (KOR) and Luo (CHN)

Mina Jeong of Korea and Shuai Luo of China seized the moment to become champions of Asia at the 2022 Asian Modern Pentathlon Championships in Almaty (KAZ).

Jeong (KOR) led a remarkable clean sweep of the medals in the Women’s Final, with silver and bronze respectively for team-mates Unju Kim and Seungmin Seong (KOR).

Misaki Uchida of Japan finished 4th, one place ahead of Alise Fakhrutdinova of Uzbekistan, while Elena Potapenko of Kazakhstan completed the top six.

China achieved three of the top four places in the Men’s Final thanks to champion Luo (CHN) – who won silver in 2019 – bronze medallist Shuhuan Li (CHN) and 4th-placed Chen Yan (CHN).

The only athlete to break up the sequence was silver medallist Jihun Lee (KOR), whose team-mate Changwan Seo (KOR) finished 5th with Pavel Ilyashenko (KAZ) one place further back.

Athletes from nine nations took part in the competition, which ran from September 14-25 at the Akbulak Olympic Centre and Almaty Horse and Polo Club, and included Under 19 categories.

UIPM President Dr Klaus Schormann said: “We were delighted to see the 2022 Asian Championships taking place in Almaty, a very traditional city of Modern Pentathlon. Nine nations competed and we can say that Modern Pentathlon in Central Asia and Asia presents all the ingredients that we need for future development.

“In the Women’s Final, Korea dominated, as they do not only here in Asia but also in other international competitions. They are performing at a high level thanks to strong training. China dominated the Men’s Final, and it’s always good to have big countries in our sport on the podium, but the other nations also enjoyed this competition very much, and the host nation Kazakhstan won bronze medals in both the women’s and men’s team events.

“We are thankful to the Asian Modern Pentathlon Confederation that they organised this competition together with the Modern Pentathlon Federation of Kazakhstan, and thanks to the AMPC President, Mr Hyunjun Kim for taking care of the sport so that we can develop the sport across this big region.”

AMPC Secretary General Sangkeong Yeo added: “We were happy to have the 2022 Asian Championships here in Almaty, held for the first time since COVID-19 broke out in 2019. We had nine countries with a big number of participants, and each day of the competition was very successful.

“I thank UIPM for their interest and for the development of the sport in Asian countries, especially Central Asian countries, and I thank the UIPM President for coming here. We are proud to be working on the development of Modern Pentathlon in Asia, and we are confident to promote our sport here in Asia with UIPM.”

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