Modern Pentathlon has first six qualified entries for Rio 2016

BEIJING, CHINA China’s Qian Chen completed a golden double at the Asian & Oceania Championships today when she was crowned Women’s Individual champion which guarantees her place at next summer’s Olympic Games in Rio. The World PWR Ranking #4, 2014 World Championships Silver Medallist and Asian Games Gold Medallist Chen (CHN) showed her class to take the gold medal in the first day of the Championships - the first Olympic Qualification event for Pentathletes which will guarantee 12 athletes (six female, six male) their place in the wonderful city next summer.

The six women who achieved qualification places in Rio 2016 on 19/20 August next summer are: Sunwoo Kim (KOR), Wanxia Liang (CHN), Xiaonon Zhang (CHN), NatsumiTomonaga (JPN) ; Oceania - Chloe Esposito (AUS). However, through the rules of the qualification system, whereby National Olympic Committees are only allowed to enter 2 athletes per gender, a place for Elena Potapenko of Kazakhstan is also guaranteed as only 2 Chinese athletes will have their qualification spots.

Eventual winner Chen (CHN) made a solid start with a third place finish in the Fencing Ranking Round behind team mate Xiaonan Zhang (CHN) and Koreas's Sunwoo Kim (KOR). Despite placing fifth in the pool, Chen (CHN) moved up one place in to second just a point adrift of Sunwoo KIM (KOR). The swim was won by Elena Potapenko (KAZ) in a time of 2:13.57 just ahead of Rena Shimazu (JPN) in 2:13.67.

The Fencing Bonus Round awards one point per bout won, so it was an exciting last few bouts, Chen beating Chloe Esposito (AUS) to draw level with Kim who lost her last bout to Xiaonan Zhang. In the Riding, only two athletes achieved perfect scores, both from China and both riding the same horse - Wanxia Liang and Chen. This gave Chen an astounding 21 seconds head start from Elan Potapenko (KAZ) in the Combined Event, with Sunwoo Kim two seconds behind the Kazakstan athlete.

A fast and furious competition for the top spots unfolded over the 4 bouts of running and shooting with Chen crossing the finish line first with Sunwoo Kim in second place. Not far behind was Wanxia Liang (CHN) in third with Chloe Esposito (AUS) hot on her heels whilst Elena Potapenko(KAZ) dropped from second place to finish seventh behind NatsumiTomonaga (JPN) in sixth.

Chloe Esposito (AUS) booked the spot for Oceania – with a fourth in the Fencing, seventh in the Swim, eleventh in the Riding seeing her start the Combined Event in fifth place. Overall, Esposito finished in fourth place, but as the first athlete from Oceania to cross the finish line she won not only the Olympic place but also the title of 2015 Oceania Champion.

Tomorrow sees the Men’s Individual event get underway with 2014 World Cup Winner and World PWR Ranking #12 Woongtae Jun (KOR) the hot favourite alongside 2014 Asian Games gold medallist Jianli GUO (CHN). Australian Max Esposito, who recently finished sixth in the Kremlin Cup in Moscow, is the favourite for the Oceania qualification spot, to guarantee a sister/brother double act in Rio de Janeiro next summer.

Follow all the action of the Olympic Games qualification events in our website at www.pentathlon.org