Pentathlon World Championships Take Place in Chinese Taipei

KAOHSIUNG, Chinese Taipei, August 26. THE Pentathlon World Championships took place this weekend in Kaohsiung, Chinese Taipei.

Day 1
With heavy downpours waterlogging the Riding course and making it impossible for the horses to come out for the penultimate event of the Women’s World Championships Final, the competition has now been suspended until tomorrow. Great Britain’s Olympic silver medallist Samantha Murray is top after two events.

The British World No.6 told us, ‘I am happy with my position after doing well in the fence. It was also a difficult swim in a slow pool with very warm water so to be first at this point in time is good for me personally.’

On the postponement of the competition, Murray added, ‘It is very difficult for all the athletes who have travelled so far to be met by a Typhoon. There has been no recovery time due to us having to compete every day. It has been far from ideal. I hope that the weather does not overshadow these World Championships.’

Understandably disappointed, she might take solace in the fact that Britain currently leads the Team rankings with defending champion Mhairi Spence in tenth position and Freyja Prentice 15th overall.

Murray had recorded the quickest time in the pool, clocked at 2:10.58, after having come fourth in the fence, amassing 2164 points. France’s Elodie Clouvel stands second overall, 48 points behind the Brit.

After day 1, Margaux Isaksen (USA) was in 17th position. She was 14th in fencing with 18 wins worth 856 points. Her swim was 2:20.69, 1,968 points. She is now poised to start some of her strongest events when the competition continues.

UIPM President Dr Klaus Schormann said, ‘The most important is the safety of the athletes and the horses, so with these conditions, it was simply impossible to continue. I have been involved in the sport for 50 years and have never experienced conditions like these. Sometimes you just have to accept the will of nature.’

If she can continue her good form when the action gets underway again tomorrow morning, Alise Fakhrutdinova could be a dark horse for honours. The 23-year-old Russian was fifth best on the pistes before she took 10th place in the pool. Her compatriot Donata Rimasaite is just behind her in 4th position with Junior World Championships bronze medallist Gloria Tocchi making up the top five.

2008 Olympic Champion Lena Schoneborn from Germany and Brazil’s 2012 Olympic bronze winner Yane Marques are 6th and 7th respectively as Liudmila Kukushkina of Russian and Ukraine’s Iryna Khokhlova complete the Top 10.

Day 2
Kaohsiung, Chinese Taipei – With Typhoon Trima having moved past the island of Taiwan and slamming in the Chinese mainland, the competition was able to continue at the Pentathlon World Championships. In a change in schedule, the remainder of the men’s and women’s individual finals was held.

On the women’s side, Team USA was represented by Margaux Isaksen who finished strongly winning the riding with a perfect score of 1200 and placing 13th in the combined, 13:20.32, 2,000 points. This helped Margaux to finish in 8th place overall with 5,168 points.

On the men’s side, it was Army Specialist Dennis Bowsher leading Team USA to an 11th place finish. Dennis along with team mate Nathan Schrimsher won the riding event with a perfect score of 1,200 points. Dennis recorded a time of 11:51.15 in the combined which was worth 2,356 points for a total score of 5,672 points.

Army PFC Nathan Schrimsher in his first Senior World Championships having just completed the Junior World Championships on the Chinese mainland and qualifying for the senior final in his first effort finished 27th with 5,484 points. As previously mentioned, Nathan had a perfect score of 1,200 points to win the riding. He had some difficulty in the combined time recording a time of 12:16.38 worth 2,176 points.

It was Lithuania winning both the men’s and women’s titles with Laura Asadauskaite winning the women’s event with 5,312 points and team mate Justinas Kinderis 5,824 taking the men’s crown. Full results are on the www.usapentathlon.org.

The above article is a press release submitted to Swimming World Magazine. It has been posted in its entirety without editing. Swimming World offers all outlets the chance to reach our audience by contacting us at Newsmaster@swimmingworldmagazine.com. However, Swimming World reserves the right to choose what material is posted.

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