Joe Evans and Tom Toolis finished 9th in the Men’s Relay at the 2016 Modern Pentathlon World Championships today as South Korea’s Woojin Hwang and Woongtae Jun took gold in Moscow. On a day that started off strongly in the pool, the duo faded slightly in the fence and ride before concluding with a strong combined event to secure a top 10 finish.
The day started with the swim, and the British duo showed why it is their favoured discipline with a scintillating 200m time of 1:49.62, the quickest of the event.
The athletes then moved into the fencing salle where a good start from the Brits saw them have 8 victories and 8 defeats at the halfway stage. A slightly disappointing second period meant they didn’t follow through on the early promise and finished the ranking round in 13th with 14 victories and 18 defeats, moving them down to 6th in the overall standings.
Pentathlon GB Performance Director Jan Bartu explained that the afternoon’s ride was “The key to today’s result. There was carnage for a number of teams as the organisers used new horses. It was obvious that the better horses were saved for the Women’s Relay and this meant that there was a lot of luck with the draw.
“The boys had a good opportunity to gain an advantage but unfortunately they knocked down 4 poles when they could have got away with just 1. This didn’t put them in a good enough position ahead of the combined event.”
With 3 time penalties too, the boys picked up 269 points in the ride which meant they slipped back to 11th with an 81 second handicap to leaders South Korea ahead of the combined event. The field were very tightly packed behind the leaders though, with the Brits just 21 seconds behind 4th placed Belarus.
A thrilling combined event ensued with 9 countries battling for position behind South Korea and home team Russia. Essex’s Toolis and Shropshire’s Evans were among this pack and eventually finished 9th after a battling combined event time of 10:47.95.
South Korea coasted to victory ahead of Russia with France moving from 7th to 3rd in the final discipline to snatch bronze.
Toolis will be competing again on Thursday in the Men’s individual Qualification alongside Jamie Cooke, Joe Choong and Sam Curry.
Wednesday its the turn of the Women’s team with Kate French and Freyja Prentice joining Monday’s (23rd May) Women’s Relay silver medallists Samantha Murray and Jo Muir in search of a place in Friday’s final.
Bartu concluded that “It’s another day of the competition done for us. We now look forward to tomorrow. It’s a very important competition for everyone.”
Report courtesy of Pentathlon GB
