UIPM 2015 Youth A World Championships: Serge Baranov caps stunning performance with gold

BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA - The Russian Serge Baranov stormed a very closely positioned 36 strong field going in to the final Combined Event to overcome a 13 second handicap and take the gold followed home in silver and bronze by Korean duo Changwan Seo and Daewon Kim (both KOR). He said: “I am very proud of this victory because I was competing against two strong Korean athletes and they made it very hard until the finish line.” Lithuania’s Dovidas Vaivada (LTU) took first place in the swimming in a time of 02:00.63 with Italian Matteo Cicinelli (ITA) a matter of hundredths of a second in his wake at 02:00.67 to take second. Third place went to Alexander Stepachev (RUS) with a swim of 02:01.12. On to the Fencing and Luis Shivel (ESP) placed first with 23 wins out of 35 along with Korea’s Changwan Seo (KOR). With 22 wins apiece Sherif Rashad (EGY) and Serge Baranov (RUS) took third and fourth respectively. After two events, it was Egypt’s Rashad (EGY) who was in pole position on the overall leaderboard giving him a slim seven second start over Russia’s Stepachev (RUS) in second place. A further two seconds behind the Russian was Korea’s Seo (KOR) followed closely by Stepachev’s (RUS) fellow countrymen Baranov and Andrei Petrov (both RUS), who would set off in the Combined Event at the same time as Italian Cicinelli (ITA) and Lithuania’s Vaivada (LTU). So with just 17 seconds separating Rashad (EGY) in first and Vaivada (LTU) in seventh, there was all to play for heading into the always thrill a minute final Combined Event of Shooting and Running. A superb gutsy performance from Daewon Kim (KOR) saw the Korean overcome a 33 second handicap start to finish second with gold medal winner Baranov (RUS) doing enough to take first overall with a third place finish in the Combined. In the team event, it was Korea who won the gold. Changwan Seo, Daewon Kim and Woojin Park stood on top of the podium alongside silver medallists Russia (Serge Baranov, Alexandr Stepachev and Andrei Petrov) and bronze medallists Mexico (Emiliano Hernandez, Dulio Carrillo and Juan Perez). With these exciting days of action at the Youth A World Championships, UIPM President Klaus Schormann said: “Buenos Aires is the future Olympic city with the Youth Olympic Games in 2018 and this competitions is being considered the first big test event. “The Argentinian Olympic Committee was of a strong support for the UIPM 2015 Youth A World Championships.” Follow all the action of this UIPM 2015 Youth A World Championships with our live results of Men`s Relay, Women`s Relay and Mixed Relay at www.pentathlon.org.