Hot day of men’s qualification at Junior Worlds in Drzonków

The day after women started their individual competition at Junior World Championships in Drzonków also men participated in qualification. Group A was won by Linbin Zhang, group B by Kirill Kasyanik and group C by Mingyu Choi.

Junior Worlds Men's Final line-up

Junior Worlds Men's Qualification Group A Full results

Junior Worlds Men's Qualification Group B Full results

Junior Worlds Men's Qualification Group C Full results

Athletes from group A started their competition with fencing. With 18 wins on pistes the first place was taken by Vladyslav Mishchenko. Dmitriy Koshelnik, who had one victory less, was second while in third three athletes who claimed 16 wins were classified – Ilya Palazkov, Jorge Abraham Camacho and Christian Zillekens.

In swimming the best time of 1:58,08 was achieved by Joseph Choong. The Brit was 4,36 secs faster than Palazkov and another 0,01 secs faster than Jihun Lee. In the overall classification the lead was kept by Mishchenko with Palazkov going up to second place and Koshelnik falling down to third.

At the start of the combined event Mishchenko had one second of advantage over Palazkov and 11 over Koshelnik. The first two were leading the race for a long time, but Palazkov did very bad at his third shooting and was overtaken by Christian Zillekens and Jihun Lee, who were chasing the leading Ukrainian. They caught him up at the last visit on a shooting range and the whole trio, sure about the promotion to the final, calmed down. This way the first to cross the finish line was starting from 10th position Linbin Zhang. Second place was taken by Lee and third by Zillekens.

Group B started the qualification with swimming. The fastest was Jiahao Han with the time of exactly two minutes. Vladislav Sukharev lost 1,61 secs to him while Pavels Svecovs was 2,44 secs slower than the Chinese.

Fencing was won by Kirill Kasyanik and Egor Puchkarevskiy – each of them claimed 17 wins. In third position three athletes were tied – Svecovs, Samuel Curry and Valerio Grasselli won 15 bouts. In the overall classification the lead was taken by Puchkarevskiy with Kasyanik, Svecovs and Han behind him.

To the combined event the Russian started four seconds before the Belarussian, eight before Svecovs and nine before the Chinese. Han finished the first shooting first, then Svecovs, Puchkarevskiy and Kasyanik. On the second running loop Matthias Sandten, starting 12th, went up to third place and after the last visit on the shooting range to second. During last 800m the leading athletes were saving their strength before the final and they finished in group. The first to cross the finish line was Kirill Kasyanik, Han finished second and Sandten third.

At the swimming pool, where the temperature reached over 40 degrees, also the competition of group C started. The best time of 1:59,71 was achieved by Joseph Evans. The Brit was 0,29 secs faster than Gauthier Romani and 2,28 secs faster than Woongtae Jun.

Mingyu Choi and Artur Bartasevic were tied in first position in fencing as they both won 17 bouts. One victory less was claimed by William Muinhos placed third in this event. Choi took the lead in the overall classification with Romani and Alessandro Colasanti behind him.

For the combined event of this group the weather changed – the sun went behind the clouds and it was very cool. At the start of the event the Korean had three seconds of advantage over the French, seven over the Italian and eight over his compatriot Woongtae Jun. Choi didn’t gave his lead away until the end, although after the last shooting Jun joined him at the top of the stake. Both Koreans crossed the finish line almost together, but Choi was a little bit faster. Third place was taken by Oleg Naumov, who started from seventh position.