The Czech Republic, Hungary and Turkey all enjoyed victories on the final day of the 2016 Under 17 Modern Pentathlon European Championships yesterday (Monday 29th August) as the event finished with the girls’, boys’ and mixed relays in glorious sunshine in Solihull.

Photo: Pentathlon GB
The Czech pair of Veronika Novotna and Katerina Tomanova claimed gold in the Girls’ Relay with Hungarian duo Csaba Bohm and David Soponyai winning the boys’event and Turks Yaren Nur Polat and Mehmet Alp Tas taking the honours in the mixed relay.
In the girls’ compeition, Italian’s Maria Lea Lopez and Beatrice Mecuri, who finished 3rd and 4th in the individual event on Saturday, claimed silver with Russia’s Iuliia Seregeeva and Alina Shakirova in bronze medal position. Portugal’s Hugo Morais and Eduardo Oliveira finished 2nd in the boys’ relay with Poland’s Sergiusz Jakubowski and Igor Powroznik completing the podium positions.
In the mixed relay, Belarus’ Pavel Loutchenok and Katjarina Sukora secured their country’s only medal of the Championships with silver, ahead of Italy’s Matteo Sala and Alice Rinaudo who capped a fine competition for their nation.
On home soil, Great Britain’s Alexandra Bousfield (Dacorum MPC, Hemel Hempstead) and Elizabeth Tolley (Dorset Pentathletes) finished 5th in the girls’ relay with James Wilton (Ashford School, Kent) and Emma Whitaker (City of Lancaster Triathlon Club) 6th in the mixed relay and Thomas Wilton (Ashford School, Kent) and George Case (Dorset Pentathletes) 7th in the boys’ relay.
The event, hosted by Pentathlon GB, was a modern triathlon; a 200m freestyle swim followed by a combined run shoot. The morning saw 6 heats of swimming – 2 in each relay – with 3 combined event heats following in the afternoon.
In the 10 team girls’ relay, Hungary’s Borbala Sarcia and Michelle Gulyas, who claimed silver in the individual event, recorded the quickest time of 2:02.39 in the swim, narrowly ahead of Great Britain’s 2:03.41 and Russia’s 2:03.80. It meant the Hungarian duo started the combined event with a 3 second lead over the Brits with Russia a single second further back.
However, in a thrilling run-shoot, the top 5 positions changed throughout and the Czech pair of Novotna and Tomanova eventually came out on top thanks to the quickest combined event time of 12:24.47. They were followed across the line by Italy, Russia, Hungary and Great Britain. Belarus finished 6th with Germany 7th and Poland 8th.
In the boys’ relay, 8 of the 11 teams broke the 2 minute barrier in the pool; Italy’s individual gold medallist Giorgio Malan and Riccardo Testarmata heading the field in a scintillating 1:53.98. Hungary’s Bohm and Soponyai closely followed in 1:54.18 with Belarus’ Alexei Khurs 3rd quickest with a time of 1:55.48. It meant the Italian duo started the combined event with a 1 second lead over Hungary and 5 over Belarus. However, just 15 seconds covered those top 8 teams in a very tightly matched field.
The run-shoot also proved to be a tight affair with the 3 quickest teams – Portugal, Poland and Hungary – separated by just 1.6 seconds. It meant that Hungary claimed gold, 5 points ahead of Portugal in the final standings with Poland a further 3 points adrift. Italy slipped to 4th with France 5th, Belarus 6th and Great Britain 7th.
13 teams entered the mixed relay with Hungary’s Jozsef Tamas and Luca Szarka leading the way after the swim due to a stunning time of 1:57.77, over 2 seconds quicker than Great Britain’s 2:00.14, Belarus’ 2:00.53 and Turkey’s 2:00.92. This meant the Hungarian’s started the combined event with a 7 second advantage, but once again the field was extremely bunched with just 24 seconds separating the top 10 teams.
Turkey, who started the run-shoot in 4th, produced a stunning 11:36.47 combined event, the quickest of the competition, to take gold ahead of Belarus and Italy. Russia finished 4th with Germany’s Emma Schonborn and Pele Uibel moving up to 5th with the second quickest combined event of the day. Great Britain finished 6th with Spain 7th and France 8th.
11 of the 17 nations at the event claimed a medal with 5 countries winning a gold medal in the 7 events – Girls’ individual, Girls’ team, Boys’ individual, Boys’ team, Girls’ Relay, Boys’ Relay and Mixed Relay. Hungary’s gold in the Boys’ relay meant they topped the final medal table ahead of Italy by virtue of their 3 silvers to the Italian’s 2.
Medal Table
Rank | Nation |
Gold |
Silver | Bronze |
Total |
1 | Hungary |
2 |
3 | 0 |
5 |
2 | Italy |
2 |
2 | 2 |
6 |
3= | Czech Republic |
1 |
0 | 0 |
1 |
3= | Spain |
1 |
0 | 0 |
1 |
3= | Turkey |
1 |
0 | 0 |
1 |
6= | Belarus |
0 |
1 | 0 |
1 |
6= |
Portugal |
0 | 1 | 0 |
1 |
8 | Great Britain |
0 |
0 | 2 |
2 |
9 | France |
0 |
0 | 1 |
1 |
10 | Poland |
0 |
0 | 1 |
1 |
11 | Russia |
0 |
0 | 1 | 1 |
Report courtesy of Pentathlon GB