UIPM 2025 Pentathlon World Cup Pazardzhik: Belaud (FRA) completes foursome in Men’s Final
- Two-time world champion denies Mihalev (BUL) in Semi-final Laser Run
- France in formidable position with Mourcia, Rochat and Fleurot also reaching Super Sunday
- Abouamer and El Ashqar (EGY), Brown (GBR) and Chen (CHN) impress
Valentin Belaud came from behind to create a formidable team of four representing France in the Men’s Final at UIPM 2025 Pentathlon World Cup Pazardzhik.
Two-time world champion Belaud (FRA) started 11th in his Semi-final Laser Run but he and Tamas Botond of Hungary both managed to edge past Todor Mihalev of Bulgaria in the late stages of the race to qualify for Super Sunday, with Moustafa Abouamer of Egypt winning the race 10sec ahead of the pack.
Belaud (FRA) will head into tomorrow’s Final accompanied by Jean-Baptiste Mourcia (FRA), Mathis Rochat (FRA) and Ugo Fleurot (FRA).
Semi-final A was won by a trans-continental trio of Charles Brown of Great Britain, Bailiang Chen of China and Mohamed El Ashqar (EGY), crossing the line together after performing well in all five disciplines.
Brown (GBR) defeated Changwan Seo of Korea in the Fencing Final to claim the maximum 250 points, but he lost a bit of momentum in Obstacle after going up against El Ashqar (EGY) in the last head-to-head.
Due to bad weather, the Tilting Ladders were removed from the Obstacle course, enabling faster times and El Ashqar (EGY) was surprisingly upstaged by two other athletes with similar height and reach – Jonas Kalaminskas of Lithuania timed 22.40sec and Rochat (FRA) followed up with 22.65.
Rochat (FRA) continued to excel in Swimming with a fastest time of 2min 05.70sec ahead of Woojin Lee (KOR) in 2:06.59, moving into a top-nine place that he refused to relinquish. The biggest movers in Laser Run were his team-mate, Mourcia (FRA), and Balazs Szep (HUN), both proving they could be a real threat in tomorrow’s Final.
In Semi-final B, Oleksandr Tovkai of Ukraine emerged as the star of Fencing after defeating Titas Puronas (LTU) in the final bout, while Mihalev (BUL) inspired the local crowd with a 3rd-placed finish.
Abouamer (EGY) set an awesome standard in Obstacle with a lightning time of 20.22, with Paris 2024 Olympic bronze medallist Giorgio Malan of Italy also demonstrating his improvement on the course with 23.32 – he and team-mate Matteo Cicinelli (ITA) will be among those to watch tomorrow.
Indeed, the Azzurri duo dominated Swimming with Cicinelli (ITA) timing 2:04.49 and Malan (ITA) 2:05.12 in the long-course pool. That set up an intriguing Laser Run where all of the top nine except Jan Toman of Czechia and Akim Gnedtchik (AIN) safely qualifying, while Mihalev (BUL) was finally defeated in his bid to improve on a starting place of 10th.
Pentathlon World Cup Pazardzhik concludes with the Women’s and Men’s Finals on Super Sunday (May 11). Live stream of the Women’s Final begins on UIPM TV at 09:30 CEST with coverage of the Men’s Final following from 13:00 CEST. All competition results are available at the UIPM website and via the UIPM Central app.
Click here to see the 18 athletes qualified for the Men's Final.
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