UIPM 2017 Junior World Championships: Russia win Mixed Relay by huge margin

Russia wrapped up the UIPM Junior World Championships with their first gold medal of the week as Xeina Fralcova and Nikolai Matveev proved unstoppable in the Mixed Relay.

The Russian duo dominated all day long, finishing top in three disciplines before entering the Laser-Run with a 51sec lead that proved more than sufficient: they eventually won by 42sec from silver medallists Hungary (Eszter Varga & Gergely Regos) and 44sec ahead of bronze medallists France (Lisa Riff & Jean-Baptiste Mourcia).

Russia (Fralcova & Matveev) dominated Fencing with a superb score of 23V/9D and also, in a rare occurrence, topped the standings in Swimming with a time of 1:59.26.

Incredibly Russia (Fralcova & Matveev) continued to lead from the front on a difficult day for Riding. With no teams managing a perfect score the leading duo dropped only seven penalty points for a total of 293 and a massive advantage for the decisive Laser-Run.

The battle for silver was intense, and it was a terrific final shoot by Regos (HUN) that settled it, despite a valiant final lap by Mourcia (FRA) and with Italy (Irene Prampolini & Matteo Cicinelli) not far behind the medallists in 4th.

Italy missed out narrowly on the final but they finished the championships as the dominant nation with three gold medals. Korea picked up two golds and there was one each for Hungary and Russia.  

The next event on the calendar is the annual flagship event, the 2017 UIPM World Championships, which takes place in Cairo (EGY) from August 21-29.