UIPM 2023 Pentathlon World Cup Sofia: Lithuania and Great Britain star in Women’s Semi-finals

Ieva Serapinaite of Lithuania took a 15-point lead into the Women’s Final after a towering Semi-final performance on the third day of UIPM 2023 Pentathlon World Cup Sofia.

Serapinaite (LTU), gold medallist at UIPM 2023 Pentathlon World Cup Ankara, inspired her team to claim four of the 18 places in Saturday's Final with a dominant Fencing Ranking Round that featured 25 victories.

London 2012 Olympic champion Laura Asadauskaite (LTU) could be a major contender in the Final after scoring 20 wins of her own, qualifying alongside team-mates Gintare Venckauskaite (LTU) and Elzbieta Adomaityte (LTU).

Great Britain also achieved four Final berths thanks to Charlie Follett, Kerenza Bryson (21 wins in Fencing), Jessica Varley and Emma Whitaker.

Semi-final B was won by a relaxed Serapinaite (LTU) as she allowed UIPM 2023 Pentathlon World Cup Budapest winner Blanka Guzi of Hungary, Alessandra Frezza of Italy, Bryson (GBR) and Sehee Kim of Korea to finish in unison.

This serene Laser Run contrasted with the drama of Semi-final A, where Rio 2016 Olympic silver medallist Elodie Clouvel of France finished 11th and failed to win one of the nine Final berths on offer. The race was won by Sunwoo Kim (KOR) with the trio of Follett (GBR), Annika Zillekens of Germany and Haeun Jang (KOR) 1sec behind.

The closest challengers to Serapinaite (LTU) when the Final begins on Super Saturday will be Xiuting Zhong of China, Jang (KOR) and Sunwoo Kim (KOR), each of whom claimed 22 victims in the Fencing Ranking Round.

UIPM 2023 Pentathlon World Cup Sofia continues tomorrow (May 12) with the Men’s Semi-final before the Finals on ‘Super Saturday’ (May 13), with the Mixed Relay concluding the competition on May 14. 

Live stream of both Finals will be available on UIPM TV and up-to-date results of all competitions are available at the UIPM website and via the UIPM Central app.

The list of qualified athletes for the Women's Final is as follows: