UIPM 2022 Youth World Championships: Lithuania win U19 Men’s Relay gold

Lithuania took the honours on the opening day of the UIPM 2022 Youth World Championships with success in the Under 19 Men’s Relay in Lignano Sabbiadoro (ITA).

The day also featured qualification for the Under 17 Women’s Semi-final, with 36 athletes moving forward to the second phase.

Under 19 Day 1

The first world champions of the combined 2022 competition are Nojus Chmieliauskas and Ugnius Kabelinskas (LTU), whose impressive Fencing score of 24V/8D was the foundation of an impressive success.

The global distribution of talent at this age group was demonstrated by the presence of countries from five different continents in the top seven.

France took the silver medal thanks to Diego Lavillat and Etienne Clergeau, while Korea claimed bronze through Jeongwook Son and Dohoon Kang. Competitors from Egypt, Mexico, Italy and Brazil made up the rest of the top seven.

Lithuania (Chmieliauskas / Kabelinskas) stood out in the Fencing Ranking Round with two more victories than closest rivals Korea (Son/Kang) and Italy (Giloli Edoardo & Diego Montecchia), who added six points in the Bonus Round to put pressure on the leaders.

Host nation Italy (Edoardo/Montecchia) then set the fastest time of 1min 56.03sec in Swimming, giving themselves a 13-point overall lead. Sadly for local spectators they couldn’t withstand the pressure in Laser Run and were overtaken by multiple rivals, finally finishing 6th.

At the front end, Lithuania (Chmieliauskas / Kabelinskas) finished a professional performance with a 10sec margin over France (Lavillat / Clergeau), while the fastest Laser Run time of 12min was set by Mexico (Jorge Hernandez & Angel Martinez).

Under 17 Day 1

The first qualification heat of the Women’s Individual U17 saw two athletes cross the line together with a big margin over the rest of the field – Emma Meszaros of Hungary and Sumin Shin (KOR) each scored 792 points.

In the second heat, Zora Zeman (HUN) took the top spot with 773 points, finishing 1sec ahead of Miu Nozaki of Japan and Egypt duo Sarah Mohamed and Ganah Elgindy.

The full list of 36 qualifiers for the Women’s U17 Semi-finals is as follows:

Watch and follow

The UIPM 2022 Youth World Championships runs from September 4-11, continuing on Monday, September 5 with the U19 Women’s Relay and U17 Men’s Individual Qualification.

Visit the UIPM website or download ‘UIPM Central’ from your app store to keep track of live results throughout the UIPM 2022 Youth World Championships.

Follow World Pentathlon on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram throughout the season for additional content.

Competition schedule

UIPM 2022 Youth World Championships (U19/U17)

September 5: (U19) Women’s Relay; (U17) Men’s Qualification

September 6: (U19) Mixed Relay; (U17) Women’s Semi-finals

September 7: (U19) Women’s Qualification; (U17) Men’s Semi-finals

September 8: (U19) Men’s Qualification; (U17) Women’s Final, Men’s Final

September 9: (U19) Women’s Semi-finals; (U17) Women’s Relay

September 10: (U19) Men’s Semi-finals; (U17) Men’s Relay

September 11: (U19) Women’s Final; Men’s Final; (U17) Mixed Relay