UIPM 2025 Pentathlon Relay World Championships: Hosts double up with Senior and Junior Mixed Relay wins

· Alexandria (EGY) toasts two more gold medals as Khalil & Shaban win Senior title

· Ismail & Hassan add another for Egypt with triumph over Junior challengers

· Medals for France, Korea, Czechia and Neutral Athletes on day three

Egypt celebrated a double Thursday triumph as the first day of Mixed Relay action at the UIPM 2025 Pentathlon Relay World Championships saw some of the sport’s stars combine to eye-catching effect.

On the third day of the new competition in Alexandria (EGY), the host nation ran its tally to four golds out of six thanks to a mix of emerging and returning stars. In the day’s first competition, all-conquering teenager Farida Khalil combined with Paris Olympian Mohanad Shaban to deliver the Senior Mixed Relay gold, seeing off a stirring challenge from France (Mathilde Derval & Leo Bories).

In the evening’s closing event, Junior honours also went to Egypt when Malak Ismail & Mohamed Hassan roared to a much more emphatic victory.

Senior Mixed Relay

The running tally of gold medals racked up by 14-year-old phenom Khalil (EGY) in just the last two weeks: UIPM Junior World Championship, UIPM World Cup Final (both at individual level) before Senior Women’s World Relay honours alongside Ismail on Tuesday. Finding herself paired alongside Shaban for an ultra-talented Mixed Relay team, it looked a stern challenge for the rest of the field which featured seven countries representing four continents. 

Egypt (Khalil/Shaban) duly racked up maximum points in Fencing before turning in a stunning Obstacle performance, clocking 0:58.00. That was over 10 seconds faster than the next best performers France (Derval/Bories) with the star-studded duo from Korea (Seungmin Seong & Changwan Seo) close behind.

Those three nations were neck and neck in the pool, less than 2 seconds separating their times. Nonetheless Egypt (Khalil/Shaban) enjoyed a handsome head start in the Laser Run but France (Derval/Bories) set about reeling that in. They gave everything, making up almost 40 seconds on the leaders but in the end settled for silver with Korea (Seong/Seo) comfortable in the bronze medal position.

Gold medallist Khalil (EGY) said: “It was a very difficult competition facing Olympians like the Korean team, also the French team was very good. But we did a very good job. I am very happy that Mohanad did such a good job in every discipline. I still have some competitions this week but I am already targeting Senior World Championship gold to complete the collection this year.”

Her teammate Shaban (EGY) added: “Today we had a hard day. Korea and France are very hard teams. But I had the champ Farida Khalil with me, she’s a very strong woman and we did a very good Obstacle race. The Laser Run was not as good today but at least we got the gold medal. Now I want to go to the World Championship and win the gold medal in August. I’m preparing hard and I will be on the podium!”

Junior Mixed Relay

Having tasted Senior Women’s Relay victory alongside Khalil on the opening day, World No.8 Ismail (EGY) was hungry for more glory alongside Hassan for the host nation. However Viktoriia Sazonova & Valery Shchukin, representing Individual Neutral Athletes, let them know they wouldn’t have it their own way as they took maximum points in Fencing.

Egypt (Ismail/Hassan) were typically impressive over the Obstacle discipline where there was drama aplenty as three of the six competing nations suffered elimination. In the pool it was Poland (Malgorzata Karbownik & Adam Machaj) who came out fastest in 1:57.10 but the home team nonetheless enjoyed a healthy lead going into the decisive Laser Run. There would be no signs of fatigue as Egypt kept the foot down all the way to an emphatic victory with AIN (Sazonova/Shchukin) winning silver and bronze going to Czechia (Katerina Vanova & Matej Kornel).

Gold medalist Hassan (EGY) said: “We started the day and did well in the Fencing seeding round, then got second in Fencing. Then we did the Obstacle very well. Malak knew this course well and we had a nice advantage after Obstacle.”

His teammate Ismail (EGY) said: “We did a great Swimming, maybe second-fastest but it was good for us. I think we had a 26-second gap in the Laser Run. I tried to push hard because I can’t risk it with the shooting. Then I handed over to Mohamed and everything went well and we finished with the gold.”

Watch and follow

The UIPM 2025 Pentathlon Relay World Championships continues tomorrow (July 11) with the U19 and U17 Mixed Relay events. All competition results are available at the UIPM website.