Spas and Mordasov triumph at Ukraine Winter Nationals

This weekend saw the Ukraine Winter Modern Pentathlon Championships take place in the capital Kiev with five days of top quality competition as the best athletes from around the country turned up to battle it out for supremacy on their home turf. The first three days was dedicated to the Senior athletes with the last two determining who were the best in the Youth A, B and C categories.

Another tour de force by 20-year-old Anastasia Spas, currently ranked No.29 in the world, showed once again that she is one of the rising stars of Modern Pentathlon. The 2013 Junior World Championships silver medallist was the not only the best fencer amongst the women with 250 points but was also the fastest in the pool, with a time of 2:10.89. From there, she had enough about her to move clear of her pursuers in the combined to take the National title ahead Catherine Shuplyakova and Valeria Permykina in 2nd and 3rd places respectively.

In the men’s, it was Oleksander Mordasov who claimed the title after having shone early with only three defeats on the fencing pistes as he collected 290 points to begin his campaign in the best possible way. Ruslan Nakonechny’s sensational time of 1:58:08 in the water gave him the perfect platform to go on and clinch silver with 2013 World Cup #3 gold medallist Pavlo Timoshchenko taking bronze.

In the Youth draws, there was some fledgling talent on show with Anton Kuznetsov and Jana Polishchuk impressing on route to the Youth A titles. Kirim Shekhmametiev was the best male in the Youth B draw whilst the women’s gold went to Elena Zubchevskaya. The winner amongst the Youth C men was Ruslan Maseykin as Alexandra Yudina showed her mettle to triumph in the women’s Youth C competition.

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