UIPM 2017 Junior World Championships: Kim (KOR) on top of the world again

Kim Sunwoo retained her Women's Individual title with another commanding performance as Korea picked up their second gold medal of the 2017 UIPM Junior World Championships.

Kim, 21, who finished 14th at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, became junior world champion for the first time last year in Cairo (EGY) and today in Hungary she achieved the rare feat of two gold medals in successive years.

Silver went to Aurora Tognetti (ITA), who was Under 19 world champion in 2014 and 2016, and her first Junior World Championship medal inspired Italy to claim team gold.

Only 3sec behind her was bronze medallist Adelina Ibatullina (RUS), the current holder of the Under-19 world title after her breakthrough success in Prague (CZE) in July 2017. The 18-year-old denied two Olympians access to the podium as Isabel Brand (GUA) and Ilke Ozyuksel (TUR) finished 4th and 5th respectively.

Ibatullina (RUS) was able to celebrate a second medal as Russia claimed team bronze, behind Italy and silver medallists Egypt.

Kim (KOR) thoroughly deserved top spot on the podium with a consistently strong performance across all five disciplines.

She embarked on the Laser-Run in unison with fellow leader Tognetti (ITA), with Ibatullina (RUS) only 4sec behind.

The two leaders stretched away but nothing could separate them until the 2nd range, where an exceptional shoot from Kim (KOR) enabled her to take the initiative – and she never looked back, finishing with a 13sec advantage.  

Kim (KOR) had a return of 21V/14D in Fencing but this was quite some distance behind today’s queen of the piste, local favourite Sarolta Simon (HUN) who scored 26V/9D.

Top performer in Swimming was Misaki Uchida (JPN) who timed an impressive 2:13.48.

It was in the Riding arena that Kim (KOR) made ground on Tognetti (ITA), with a perfect score of 300 against her rival’s 286. Ibatullina (RUS) and Ozyuksel (TUR) also enjoyed an unblemished round.

This enabled Ozyuksel (TUR), who has already had an exceptional senior season with two medals at the UIPM World Cup and one at the European Championships, to make an aggressive bid for the podium but although she made up an incredible 17 places in the Laser-Run, there was to be no interruption to the top four.

UIPM President Dr Klaus Schormann said: “The athletes performed extremely well in windy conditions today and I congratulate Kim Sunwoo on her second Women’s Individual gold medal at the Junior World Championships. 

“We saw a very high technical standard from the athletes who will be the stars of our sport in the future.”

The Men’s Individual Final takes place on Sunday (August 13) before the Mixed Relay concludes the Junior World Championships on Monday (August 14).

Real-time results of all competitions are available at the UIPM website.