UIPM 2025 Pentathlon World Cup Final: Khalil (EGY) and Castaudi (FRA) stand out in Women’s Semi-finals
Farida Khalil of Egypt and Rebecca Castaudi of France dominated their respective Semi-finals to emerge as strong medal contenders at the UIPM 2025 Pentathlon World Cup Final.
Continuing her astonishing breakthrough season, Khalil (EGY) was utterly dominant in Semi-final A, winning Fencing and Obstacle to take a 58sec lead into Laser Run and winning by 26sec from Coline Flavin (FRA), with Blanka Bauer of Hungary finishing 3rd.
Castaudi (FRA) also built on a Fencing victory to pass comfortably into the Women’s Final coming up on Super Sunday, winning Semi-final B by 14sec from Blanka Guzi (HUN) with Malak Ismail (EGY) and Malgorzata Karbownik of Poland leading a pack across the line.
Paris 2024 Olympic bronze medallist and 2024 world champion Seungmin Seong of Korea also earned a place in the Final, where top-10-ranked athletes Anna Jurt of Switzerland and Ilke Ozyuksel of Türkiye will be among the contenders.
Semi-final A
Laura Heredia of Spain won her Fencing Round of 16 fight against Bauer (HUN) and progressed to the Semi-finals, belying her low seeding of 15. In the last four she was stopped by Flavin (FRA), who then defeated Heredia (ESP) to set up a Final against Khalil (EGY) – which is where her run came to an end.
Khalil (EGY) seemed to be targeting 30sec on a challenging Obstacle course, while most participants looked content with anything under 50sec. So it proved that the local athlete’s time of 31.76 put her on a different level to the rest of the field, though Flavin (FRA) was also way ahead of the majority with her 40.82.
Winning the final Swimming heat in 2min 15.34sec, Khalil (EGY) extended her overall lead as the only faster swimmers on the day were in the bottom half of the field, Wakana Uchiyama and Yuri Suzuki of Japan (2:10.72 and 2:13.98 respectively).
It is highly rare for an athlete to have a 1min+ lead in Laser Run and the 58sec cushion for Khalil (EGY) enabled her to execute her own race. With the majority of athletes in a pack start, it was difficult to identify the battle for 9th but Heredia (ESP) with a fastest time of 11:55.32 left nothing to chance, same as Bauer (HUN), Ozyuksel (TUR) and Jurt (SUI). Finally it was Suzuki (JPN) who claimed the final qualification place, 8sec ahead of Gaeon Park (KOR).
Semi-final B
Seong (KOR) set the tone in Fencing by knocking out the top seed, Aurora Tognetti of Italy, and there were further upsets inflicted by Castaudi (FRA) and Vivienne Meyer (SUI). Seong (KOR) and Castaudi (FRA) progressed to the Final. Castaudi (FRA) used her priority well and struck the first blow, before Seong (KOR) retaliated and went 3-2 up. With 6sec to go, Castaudi (FRA) levelled and then made it 5-4 under pressure at the death.
Janine Kohlmann of Germany set a high standard from the start of Obstacle with a smooth 40.33, and Zeina Amer (EGY) almost matched that time before things settled down. The highlight of the round was a gripping race between Malak Ismail (EGY) and the lithe Tognetti (ITA), who stood out with 33.83, followed by another quality race between Meyer (SUI, 35.90) and Karbownik (POL).
Having dropped down the standings with a modest Obstacle time, Seong (KOR) used Swimming to close the gap with a standout time of 2:14.55, narrowly quicker than Beatrice Mercuri (ITA) with Guzi (HUN) also improving her overall position.
With Castaudi (FRA) untouchable at the front end, Guzi (HUN) typically scorched the Laser Run course with 11:57.24, while Louison Cazaly (FRA) also broke the 12min mark in propelling herself into the top nine. Behind her, Amer (EGY) looked like mounting a challenge but a tiring Tognetti (ITA) finally held off the challenge in intense heat to secure 9th place.
The UIPM 2025 Pentathlon World Cup Final continues tomorrow (July 5) with the Men's Semi-finals, followed by the Women’s and Men’s Finals on July 6.
Live stream is available free on UIPM TV and YouTube and all competition results are available at the UIPM website.
Click here for a full list of the 18 athletes who qualified for the Women’s Final.
