UIPM 2017 World Biathle-Triathle Championships: Oosthuizen (RSA) dethrones Henrard (FRA)

Pieter Oosthuizen of South Africa caused an upset on day three of the UIPM World Biathle-Triathle Championships by ending the gold rush of France’s Alexandre Henrard.

Henrard (FRA) had won individual gold in both Biathle and Triathle in 2015 and 2016 – and added two Mixed Relay gold medals already this week in Viveiro (ESP) – but today he finally met his match in the Men’s Individual Senior Triathle.

Oosthuizen (RSA) had the added motivation of wanting to improve on the silver medal he won on Day 2 and it continued a wonderful week for South Africa, who had already accumulated nine gold medals in all age categories in the first two days.

Alongside the top two on the podium was an athlete whose name and face are familiar to most members of the UIPM community. Bronze was won by David Svoboda (CZE), the London 2012 Olympic Modern Pentathlon champion. Spain won the team gold.

France may not have won the biggest honour in men’s Triathle today but they did win the senior female individual gold thanks to Julie Belhamri (FRA), who had already teamed up with Henrard to win two Mixed Relay titles.

Belhamri (FRA) took gold ahead of silver medallist Eliska Pribylova (CZE) and bronze medallist Nina Waldner (AUT).

UIPM Secretary General Shiny Fang said: “We have more and more athletes who are not just beginners but who are athletes from Modern Pentathlon taking part in Biathle and Triathle.

“Today we saw an Olympic champion on the podium in what was a very competitive Triathle event.”

South Africa continued to excel at all levels, winning all four gold medals at Under 11 and Under 13, two at Under 15 (Great Britain won the other two), one at Under 17 (Russia x 2; GBR x 1) and two at Under 19 (Russia x 2).

In the Junior (Under 23 class) South Africa won men’s team gold but there was individual success for Aroa Freije (ESP) and Martin Vlach (CZE).

South Africa won both Masters golds at 60+, while there was success for Great Britain (50+ female), Spain (40+ female and male and 50+ male) and Italy (40+ male).

With one day to go, South Africa now have a total of 26 gold medals.

Learn more about Triathle and Biathle and check out the results of all this weekend's action on the UIPM website. Picture galleries can be viewed in the media section. For video highlights visit the UIPM Facebook page.